Ten years ago tomorrow

I can't believe it's been 10 years already. It seems like yesterday

Ten years later and Twitter virgins still think they’re clever by quoting the ‘WWE will be better when Vince is dead’ line.

It wasnt his fault. It was the perfect opportunity to usher in change but ended up being squandered like what happened to Nexus at Summerslam the year before. When Punk "left" and then came back after that promo, he

-Lost the championship to Alberto Del Rio cashing in his MITB

-Jobbed to HHH

-Lost a Triple Threat Match eating the pin to Alberto Del Rio

-Jobbed to the Awesome Truth

By the time he won the WWE Championship again, nobody cared and his championship reign was often second fiddle on PPVs.

What PJ said!

I posted this on another board thread as well:


The segment felt too scripted to me and not real. I know the thoughts and words were his own but obviously Vince, HHH, Stephanie or whoever gave him permission to come up with a speech and say it on their TV show. This wasn't the Montreal Screwjob or Austin trash talking Jake or Hogan accidentally thinking of an outlaw group name on the fly. This is not something that changed wrestling accidentally or on purpose or over a period of time like those events did.

At best, it was a real life disgruntled yet well paid employee being allowed to do what the owners allowed him to do, venting his frustrations within reason. The worse thing is, is just how standoffish Punk is to the very fan base who supports him and seems to believe him to be some sort of wrestling savior who "tells it like it is." It's no different than a politician pandering for votes and yet living him a mansion away from everyone else and wanting nothing to do with the people who supported him all while they tell their friends and family "this guy tells it like it is."

Ten years latter and every word still rings true. And they still haven’t had one moment since then that has come even close.

This was an odd period of time for me where I was working nightshift (still am) and didn't have the means to record Raw... no DVR, VCR didn't work anymore. So, I was already aware of what happened prior to watching it. I wish I could have watched it not knowing something wild was about to happen. Still was amazing and always will be.

Bryan - WM30.

Great promo, but they screwed it up straight away in typical WWE fashion.

In hindsight, the promo didn't have the longevity of a true shoot promo, because of what we now know in the scripted creation of it.

To be honest the Mat Hardy 2005 "invasion" and name dropping ROH looked more believable.

I have grown to dislike Punk a great deal since he left WWE( the whole UFC thing & his comments towards wrestling and his actions left me disenchanted) & only recently has my interest in him sort of returned since he’s possibly coming back to wrestling. I can’t say I’m not interested.

When he did the return on RAW after MITB, I mean, if that was the WWF of old, they would have strapped a rocket on his back and let him go. He was OVER. I was seeing Punk shirts all over town and I hadn’t seen people wearing wrestling shirts outside of an actual wrestling event so frequently since Stone Cold & the nWo. I wore my Punk shirt to a TNA house show and the wrestlers were conversing with me about how great it is for the business that he’s so over right now, no joke. (Simon Diamond had a lengthy conversation with me & so many guys commented about it at the intermission signings)

This is one instance of BLATANT sabotage. When they beat him at Summerslam for the belt with Del Rio, that was Strike 1. Why did they beat him the minute he achieved success? It’s not always about the hunt, he had BEEN hunting, just let him run now. He then feuded with Kevin Nash instead of for the world title, strike 2. This COULD have been a positive, had it been established that HHH & Vince were behind it. That starts an entire Punk vs the Establishment feud. Instead, it was a Kevin Nash that wasn’t allowed to use his best skill, his mouth, to compete, so it was just boring and relegated Punk to the background when he should have been right out front.

And then the 3rd strike & to this day one of the most baffling booking decisions I can think of in pro wrestling, they have him lose to HHH at NOC and through out the build, Hunter isn’t even really a heel. He beats Punk, JUST to put the brakes on him. It made no booking sense whatsoever. NONE. And Punk was never as hot after that, it totally cooled his jets. Then he backseats Rock/ Cena tag at Survivor Series, backseats Rock/ Cena at Mania 28. He’s always presented less than after that.

I lost a lot of faith in WWE after this because this came off to me like nobody is going to be bigger than the company ever again. WWE is the star, not any one individual. They now put their marbles in the bags of people that need them, not the other way around. I think they got burned one too many times in a row and the last straw was Lesnar and they said never again. Punk got over and wasn’t supposed to, so he held all the cards. WWE went out of their way to squash Punks momentum and they did. He friggin quit wrestling, talk about becoming disenchanted.