Regular visitors to TheWrestlingMania.com may remember my column as to why “The Streak” should never end. You may then wonder why I need to revisit a similar theme this week when I say that this column will give you the reasons why CM Punk shouldn’t be the man to end it at WrestleMania 29.
I have to, because this “20-1” nonsense is missing a number of vital points.
As you will see from my bio, CM Punk is perhaps my favourite current WWE superstar going. I’m also the man who was livid all those many years back when Randy Orton wasn’t allowed to end The Streak. I’m just trying to show that I’m not someone who has always thought that The Streak shouldn’t end, nor am I merely expressing my dislike for CM Punk by flat out saying he shouldn’t be victorious in New Jersey on April 7th.
I say it because it defies all logic of wrestling.
Even if you have the somewhat valid argument that The Streak should only exist for someone to get “the rub” by ending it, it shouldn’t be Punk in 2013.
Bear with me for a moment. This mega WrestleMania match was not set up by any epic grudge feud; it was set up by a man moaning about losing two matches (and his World Title) to The Rock and then failing to beat John Cena in his last chance to get in the title picture at ‘Mania. Punk didn’t even set out to “make a name” for himself at Undertaker’s expense; he won a match devised by Vickie Guerrero giving any one of four men a chance to go on and end The Streak.
This is an idea that was deemed so bad, the writer responsible for suggesting it was fired from the writing squad days later. Now that may say a lot more about the schizophrenic nature of Vince McMahon’s business decisions than the talent of his writers but think about that for one minute. A match that many people have been predicting would happen for weeks and months was set up by an angle thought up less than a week before it was announced.
Yet surely, even if the lead-in angle was set up at the last minute they must have had a serious plan for making this match mean something in the weeks to come? Well, there again we have to say no. What would the WWE have done if Paul Bearer hadn’t unfortunately died the very week that The Undertaker returned? Because whilst you could be kind and say that circumstances presented the WWE with a fittingly morbid way to ramp up a feud, you could just as easily argue that it was lucky because it saved them having to come up with anything else. This can again be seen by this week’s Raw.
And there is, to quote the man CM Punk REALLY wants to fight at a WrestleMania, the bottom line. No matter how much you like CM Punk should The Streak, which has been over twenty years in the making and has been built up so effectively be tossed away for a five/six week feud that appears to have had very little thought put into it? Rather than being a vital issue between two people, it seems like nothing more than a match set-up to keep The Streak alive and ensure that Punk, as per his quote on his DVD, isn’t merely someone’s “next TV programme”.
The WWE, and Punk himself, have done a wonderful job of making many people believe The Streak will end. If it does, it will be a travesty and far from cementing The Undertaker as the ultimate “company man” it will be a complete waste of The Streak’s legacy. And if The Undertaker really has expressed a desire to end The Streak for CM Punk, he would be doing everyone a favour if he waited until next year and allowed a serious, epic storyline to be behind it.
– By Matthew Roberts