Within all aspects of sports and entertainment, year end lists are typically a point of controversy that divides opinion. However, this year in the wrestling world, there was a pretty unanimous opinion that CM Punk was the wrestler of the year for 2011.
The problem with year end awards and lists is how quick we are to forget everything that has happened over the course of the year, tending to focus on the big stand out moments that happen in the second half of the year. In the wrestling world, The Miz for example, wasn't near anybody's annual list of top wrestlers, despite the fact he headlined WrestleMania and held the WWE title for the first four of five months of the year. If the end of year poll had been taken around this time, The Miz would surely have been voted as the number one star at the time.
I myself, am guilty of this, not including The Miz in my own top 10 stars of the year list. One other wrestler I did not include was CM Punk, as I felt he had a much weaker year than everyone else did. "Really?" I can hear you saying in an sardonic, Miz-imitating manner. But hear me out, as I go over the past twelve months and look at what CM Punk was doing in each of them.
January - April
After a period on guest commentary at the end of 2010, CM Punk returned to the ring and took over the reigns of the Nexus, the heel faction that dominated wrestling television for the past year. However, by that time, Nexus was dead on its legs and bringing in CM Punk to replace Wade Barrett provided nothing more than a short-term boost which was dead within a few weeks. Punk had looked ready to make the jump to main event after the Straight Edge Society was over, and though WWE creative may have thought putting him in the Nexus would have been the key to do this, it was not to be.
A brief rivalry between CM Punk and John Cena in January was put off until the Summer, in favour of a program with Randy Orton which went into WrestleMania and beyond. Despite their best efforts to give the feud heat, referring back to a moment in 2008 when Orton punted a babyface CM Punk in the head, their feud was nothing more than a mid-card rivalry at best - filler. They had some of the best PPV matches together at the time, being two of the best workers on the roster, but never did they steal the show and propel their feud up to main event status as it could have been. While Punk's heelish and drawling shout of "Randal" every week was amusing, it was barely enough to get the feud over - especially during a time when everyone was more excited about The Rock and John Cena.
May - June
All the while during Punk's feud with Randy Orton, the newly renamed "New Nexus" was little more than a background cast. They were to come more to the forefront in May as CM Punk began tagging with Batista Mason Ryan in a dull feud over the worthless tag titles with Big Show and Kane. This was one of the lowest points of the year for Punk, taking beatings from Big Show on a weekly basis almost and quickly losing the star power and momentum he had gained in 2010. Rumours of CM Punk leaving the WWE as his contract was up were circling on the internet and it looked as though Punk was going to put over Big Show and Kane of all people on his way out the door.
After the unsuccessful Tag Team Title challenge at Over The Limit, Punk started a brief rivalry with Rey Mysterio which culminated in a match at Capitol Punishment in June. Punk and Mysterio had only feuded just under a year ago on Smackdown, and so this was nothing new or special to fans despite the two being amongst the best in-ring workers in the company. With rumours of CM Punk leaving becoming more fervent, beating Mysterio at Capitol Punishment raised questions as to what WWE had planned with him for the future.
July
Though the past six months had barely been a memorable time for CM Punk, all that was to change in July as the leader of the New Nexus became the number one contender after a series of victories. But CM Punk challenging John Cena for the WWE title at Money in the Bank was not to be any ordinary match. In an effort to create a buzz as ratings were sinking, WWE had Punk cut a half shoot promo at the end of an ordinary episode of Raw in which he lambasted everyone in the WWE from John Cena to John Laurinaitis, claiming to be leaving and leaving with the WWE title. Punk turned an ordinary B-level PPV in Money in the Bank into an A-show, hyping up a must watch match between the challenge and champion in a series of cutting promos. This was the CM Punk that everyone had been waiting to see over the course of 2011, having shown his promise on Smackdown, especially on the microphone. Punk was finally about to make it. And he did, beating John Cena for the WWE title in what would be the undisputed match of the year, a thirty minute bout in Punk's hometown of Chicago, in front of a rapturous crowd. WWE had created a true buzz like they had the summer prior with the Nexus storyline, but like that, everything that was exciting and fresh about Punk capturing the WWE title and leaving was to wither into a typical WWE program and quickly become stale.
August
The first mistake WWE made was creating a second WWE championship belt and having an eight man tournament for it on Raw the night after Money in the Bank. The second mistake was having John Cena, who was supposed to be fired (recalling a storyline from only 7-8 months before that he was supposed to be fired and never left TV) beat the eventual winner of that tournament, Rey Mysterio - adding fuel to the fire that was the negativity surrounding Cena within the WWE fanbase. The third mistake was having CM Punk return two or three weeks after "quitting" and going back into another program with John Cena so quickly. The buzz that was created around Punk in July was because of the aspect of realism in everything that happened. Though we knew all the promos Punk was cutting were scripted to an extent, it was easy for us all to suspend our disbelief, idealising Punk as the cool outsider, like Scott Hall and Kevin Nash (more on him in a moment) had been in the nineties when they left WWF for WCW. Seeing CM Punk come back with a brand new theme and a new t-shirt was a turn-off, outing Punk as just another corporate yes man of the WWE, the John Cena for teenagers and young adults. Punk and Cena would try throughout August to recapture the magic of July, and in a sense some of it was great, including another great match at Summerslam, but the introduction of Triple H and Kevin Nash into Punk's story was what caused it to all come crashing down.
September
After Kevin Nash cost CM Punk the WWE title at Summerslam, a confused and tired angle between Punk, Nash, Triple H and John Laurinaitis began, culminating in a match between Punk and Triple H at Night of Champions after a series of cutting promos. Punk and Hunter continued the style of the past two months, making insider references in all of their promos in an attempt to make the feud seem real, but Triple H came across more as the sympathetic character despite Punk being the new top babyface of the company they were building. Punk's natural arrogance that comes across in radio interviews and his Twitter started appearing on the screen. Punk was the angsty, teenage child and Triple H was the man, pissed off at the young upstart who did nothing but run his mouth every week. And when Triple H finally ran his mouth back, he cut Punk down to size, calling him out for all his hypocrisies and bullshit and painting him as the spoilt brat he had become.
Punk was becoming an unlikable babyface quicker than Cena ever dreamed of, mixing goofy comedy, such as a fake puking at Kevin Nash which lasted a whole minute and drew no laughter from the crowd, with biting shoot comments that served only to downplay his opponents as real life goofs, putting over neither himself or his opponents. Though the crowd were still cheering his name, the viewers at home were not. Punk calling Kevin Nash a ratings killer in an uncalled-for comment live on Raw came back to haunt him, and the "click" sound he had mockingly referred to as people turning over the channel when Nash was on the screen, was in fact happening to him. Segments involving Punk were down and it appeared as though the casual audience were turning off to him, despite becoming the biggest t-shirt seller on WWEshop.com and live events. The audience was divided, like they had been for Cena vs. Punk, but not in a good way.
Triple H and CM Punk went on to have their match at Night of Champions, headlining the card in a long and dull street fight that had a WCW-level of run-ins, igniting a rivalry between Punk and Triple H with Awesome Truth that would play out over the next few months.
October-December
Though the Triple H and CM Punk feud had been a bitter and personal one, they were buddies by the end of the next month and teaming up against Miz and R-Truth who would interfere in two main events in a row. A triple threat Hell in a Cell match with Punk, Cena and Del Rio was a fun match, but served only to advance the Awesome Truth storyline. Punk was becoming a part of the background cast and the popularity he had gained in the Summer was waning, despite his popular "Best in the world" t-shirt still selling in high numbers. Online, fans were beginning to turn on him, some calling him boring and undeserving of his recent push, unimpressed with his work since becoming a main event player on Raw. There were other factors to be added to this, however, such as Punk shooting on Rock in several radio interviews, inadvertently putting himself in the Team Cenation camp, an unpopular choice amongst older fans. Bad booking was another problem. But Punk was not entirely without blame and as Punk went into a short program with Alberto Del Rio for the WWE title, cutting down Del Rio in a shoot-style promo as "boring" and "repetitive" which only served to make Del Rio look worse. His comments decreased momentum going into their Survivor Series match, and by virtue of that, made himself look worse in the process. And though their Survivor Series match was good, it could have been a lot better if Punk had put his opponent over as a threat instead of cutting him down, which had become his style. Another match at TLC took place between Punk and Del Rio, this time with Miz thrown in to the pot. It was just another match, with no special feeling and certainly no element of danger in Punk losing his title. All the while during this time, CM Punk's feud with new Raw GM John Laurinaitis was developing, an ongoing storyline on Raw. Though Laurinaitis is the clear heel in their feud, Punk keeps coming across as brattish and annoying in his promo delivery, making spiteful, heelish, shoot comments that turns people off from him.
The year of 2011 was a huge year for CM Punk, by far the biggest year of his career, but it was a year that we watched Punk evolve from the exciting outsider heel we loved to cheer into the boring, corporate, babyface champion that cuts spiteful promos that cut into the wrestler's real persona rather than his on-screen character. The Raw after TLC saw CM Punk align himself with new champions Daniel Bryan and Zack Ryder in a nauseating trio of "internet darlings" against a heel team of Miz, Del Rio and Ziggler in the main event. The match was the lowest rated main event on TV for the whole of 2011. That right there pretty much sums up Punk's year for me and is exactly why he was not the wrestler of the year for 2011, merely an internet fan's favourite who got his moment in the spotlight and almost blew it. After six months of mediocrity at the start of the year, Punk had an exciting couple of months in the Summer that will be one of the most memorable moments of this era when we look back on it in the future, but things hastily fell apart and the "Summer of Punk" became a cold and unrepenting winter. Was CM Punk the wrestler of the year for 2011? Quite simply, no. The year in wrestling revolved around one man, the true
wrestler of the year - John Cena.
