photo courtesy: wwe.com
How did we get to this point? How is the feud between two of the best talkers in World Wrestling Entertainment history so painfully boring? Overbooking.
The feud between Chris Jericho and CM Punk will culminate this Sunday at Extreme Rules. After a good, but mildly disappointing WrestleMania matchup between the two, all eyes are on just how well Jericho and Punk can do in their return bout.
On a purely in-ring basis, the match will be great. Presumably, they will have more time than their WrestleMania match. It is the blow-off match of the feud and it's in Punk's hometown of Chicago, a typically ravenous WWE crowd.
Yet it feels so empty.
The feud began under the premise that Jericho fresh off a two-year layoff took offense to Punk referring to himself as the "Best in the World." Punk, not one to cater to anyone's thoughts, could not care less what the "Dancing with the Stars" alum Jericho had to say. It was simple and effective.
Two guys with relatively similar career paths taking claim of a title as the best wrestler in the world, not a wild claim for either. Somewhere along the line the storyline turned from simply "I am better than you" to a dreary, overly-dramatic challenge of Punk's straight edge style from Jericho.
Jericho began by berating Punk about his alcoholic father, an angle reminiscent back to Punk's famous feud with ECW and WWE alum Raven in Ring of Honor. Punk uttered the famous words, "My father is just like you." That promo and feud moved Punk to the top of the independent wrestling world and eventually to the WWE.
Jericho took this storyline a step further mentioning Punk's sister's issues in an elaborate plan to make Punk mad enough to give him a rematch. On the surface, it is a great concept for a storyline but without knowing the characters involved, it is very difficult to grasp why Punk was so angry.
As the storyline progressed, it became less about Punk’s family and more about his straight-edge lifestyle. A lifestyle Jericho openly challenged. Jericho made references to Punk's hypocrisy and the fact that he was secretly drinking alcohol despite preaching sobriety.
For some reason we were suppose to boo Jericho.
No doubt, it is a challenge of Punk’s devout lifestyle, and the fact that he so vehemently defended himself is commendable. Except of course, a little over a year ago we were suppose to hate Punk for embracing and defending that lifestyle.
The Straight Edge Society was essentially this exact storyline but flipped. Punk was a face during his initial WWECW run off the premise of being straight edge but the S.E.S. is fresh in our minds.
The WWE fan base has not been trained to think less of alcohol drinkers. In fact, one of their biggest stars ever was built largely on his constant post match drinking. He was the anti-hero everybody loved.
The Sandman in ECW rose to popularity not as a California surfer; nope The Sandman became a star as a crazy drunk who crushed cans on his forehead until it bled.
But forget all that, forget what Punk did no more than a year ago. Now you're suppose to hate drinking.
photo courtesy: wwe.com
I understand the basic premise: we're suppose to respect Punk for his devotion to straight-edge living, but it is really hard to do for most fans above the age of 12. If you grew up idolizing Stone Cold Steve Austin because he kicked his boss’s ass then drank a bunch of beer in the ring, you cannot turn around and cheer Punk for being so against drinking.
It just does not work.
Moreover, the 12-and-under fan base likely does not care if Punk drinks or not. Alcohol use or abuse is not exactly something at the top of their minds.
The storyline since the turn to a personal debate of straight-edge living has rapidly lost steam. Crowd reactions and rating patterns show a general apathy to this entire angle, which is disappointing given the performers.
Instead of keeping the storyline simple and based off the idea of one guy being better than another, the constant overbooking and overwriting of WWE story lines strikes again.
There is a desire to make every feud anything but an athletic competition to decide who the better wrestler is.
If any feud or any performers deserved simplicity, it was these two.
At the end of the day, the match at Extreme Rules will be great, the crowd will be stellar as usual and we will look back fondly on this feud. But I cannot help but wonder how much better a simpler storyline would have been.
source: bleacherreport.com
