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I was a big fan of Punk at the time, but was he as good as everybody is making him out to be? Was the pipe-bomb even that good a promo, or was it just that it came along in a sea of scripted bullshit? I mean, The Miz cut one good promo on Talking Smack and people were comparing it to "Hard Times." Jeez.
Punk vs. Jeff Hardy is one of my favorite feuds of the past decade, and I've never been a big Jeff Hardy fan. Those two were perfect rivals for each other though. I thought Punk's commentary run while he was injured was brilliant, and I wanted to see him go against John Cena, but his other stuff really fell flat. Punk could play well against extremely popular and charismatic babyfaces that could keep up in the ring and work to his style. His ring work as a babyface was really quite dull and repetitive (that spin into the swinging neckbreaker, the bulldog, the elbow off the top -- fucking hell), and it was all carried by how hot he got after one promo.
It was booked to shithouse, don't get me wrong. Triple H should have turned heel and been the Vince McMahon to Punk's Austin. Kevin Nash should have been nowhere near Punk or Triple H at this point in time (he should have been the bodyguard to Christian). But in retrospect, there's a reason that Punk/Jericho didn't go on last over Cena/Rock, and we can all recognize it in the pits of our stomachs. CM Punk and Chris Jericho just don't add up to being stars of the same magnitude. Punk arguably should have been the hottest act in the mid-card.
I honestly don't really miss him at all. The matches we haven't seen aren't enough to really make me wish he was around. Even the potential promos aren't making me wet, because the only pay-off to them are matches, and I'm not too keen on seeing those.
Color Commentator Punk only.
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