CM Punk hasn't just elevated the John Cena heel run — he's resuscitated it

Yahoo

10 hours ago

If hell froze over when CM Punk returned to the WWE in 2023, then perhaps we need a new meteorological phenomenon to describe what happened this past Friday — when WWE decided to dial up the anticipation for this Saturday's John Cena vs. CM Punk universal title match at Night of Champions with a tribute to the infamous pipe bomb promo.
Yes, that pipe bomb. The one that blurred the lines between kayfabe and backstage politics, earning CM Punk an instant suspension from WWE and laying the groundwork for his eventual expulsion a few years later. The one in which Punk took legitimate shots at Vince McMahon, cementing his status as the ultimate outsider and iconoclast. The one that sent internet forums into an instant tailspin and is still being debated some 14 years later.
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The monologue has been consistently cited as one of the most controversial in WWE history — and yet here it was being not just referenced by Cena on 'SmackDown,' but actively embraced and parodied. Then just in case we'd missed the significance of it all, we had a video package on "WWE Raw" containing snippets of the original pipe bomb. Once again, the underworld was looking decidedly chilly.
To be fair, perhaps we should have seen it coming. From the moment CM Punk returned, WWE has been at pains to convince us that they've signed the real deal, controversies and all. 'I gotta be me right?' the man himself put it, minutes into his first promo after his return. Less than two weeks later, he proved the point, making a tongue-in-cheek reference to the backstage fight with Jack Perry that had got him fired from AEW. It's no exaggeration to say I gasped out loud when I heard it.
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Clever lines aside, being the rebel is a tricky balance to strike. In his decade away from television, Punk built a reputation as pro-wrestling's biggest truth-teller. But how does that work when you're back in the WWE — a multi-billion dollar company with a knack for enforcing message discipline? For the past 18 months, CM Punk has tried his best to square that circle, but has it worked?
There's no doubt that his latest run in WWE has been great. But rebellious? The creatives might want us to think that his barbs at the expense of The Rock ("You bald fraud!") are unscripted. But the fact that they end up approvingly posted to WWE's YouTube channel (albeit prefaced with a rather try-hard "Uncensored!") makes me think they're probably not.
Still, when the man is putting together one of the feuds of his career against Drew McIntyre, you quickly learn to put those doubts to the back of your mind. Let the internet obsessives argue among themselves about whether Punk has been "watered down" or not, you think. And then the WWE goes and changes everything: Having Cena launch a direct attack on Punk for his supposed lack of integrity. "You are not against TKO. You are Mr. TKO,' Cena goaded his rival, delivering exactly the kind of line that would make us all sit bolt upright.
Let's not forget it came just days after one of the biggest mic drop moments in years. It was on "Raw" two weeks ago that Cena taunted Punk about the fact that his much-awaited title shot will take place not in Chicago, but in Saudi Arabia — the very country who Punk previously attacked on social media during his wilderness years, and whose lucrative partnership with WWE is seen as the height of the latter's corporate culture. The message to the shocked crowd was clear: The guy whose name you chanted for 10 years is about to sell his soul to get ahead. For once, Cena really seemed to have outsmarted us all.
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Has this been the best buildup of the entire Cena heel run? Quite possibly. What's undeniable, though, is that it was exactly what this feud needed. All of a sudden, Saturday's main event has that pulsing urgency that has been sorely lacking from so much of the last few months.
It helps that, for once, the boldness isn't an illusion. Clearly Triple H and Nick Khan were happy to use the Saudi relationship as a way to generate heat for the Cena/Punk feud, but you have to wonder what Turki Alashikh made of it. After all, he's the one who signs off on all those $50 million dollar checks in the first place. Compared to that potential minefield, the decision to revive the pipe bomb seems almost safe by comparison.
Still, at least you certainly can't accuse WWE of resting on their laurels. After so much of the Cena retirement tour has felt tired or derivative, this feud has struck the gold that we've been waiting for. And all it took was a little sprinkling of that old pipe bomb energy — and the bravery to light the fuse.