WWE: Why Follow-Up to CM Punk Angle Is More Important Than Raw Promo

Wrestling fans everywhere are still buzzing over CM Punk's "shoot" promo at the end of Raw on Monday night. WWE decided to give the reins to one of its best performers and let him go out there and tell the world why he was leaving the company after the July 17 Money In the Bank show. But the most important part of this angle, even more than the actual promo, is the follow-up.

Obviously, there has to be something really, really compelling that gets people talking about what the angle could be, but we have seen this happen so many times with WWE over the last five or six years. They get a great angle started, only to squander it with awful booking and putting the wrong people over at the wrong time.

For instance, when the Nexus angle started last June, people were buzzing about the possibility of this faction of young, unproven wrestlers being pushed as a main event workers. They made a statement by destroying the ring and beating up everyone in their path, including John Cena and ring announcer Justin Roberts.

Fans and analysts were saying that this was one of the great angles of all-time and that people would be talking about it for years to come. WWE had this big angle planned for SummerSlam that would be the start of this big turnaround. But Nexus lost at SummerSlam, and after that, everyone the group was made to look like dorks.

All that momentum and potential was wasted because Vince McMahon wouldn't let anyone go over John Cena, Randy Orton and Edge.

Fast forward back to today with CM Punk, and you can sense why I am not exactly ready to proclaim this the best thing that WWE has ever done.

We have been teased with strong angles and potential long-term storylines for so long that after so many times of seeing them fail, it's hard to really get excited about what could happen.

Yes, this promo was great; no one can deny that. But what happens if Punk just loses to Cena at Money In the Bank? No one will remember this promo because they will have just seen this guy, who should be getting pushed as the dastardly outsider carrying around the WWE championship, lose to a guy that we have seen as champion for most of the last five years.

I want to believe that this time will be different. I want to believe that Vince McMahon will stop worrying so much about John Cena getting pinned and focus on what will work best for the business. I want to believe that WWE has finally figured everything out. I want to believe, but until I see what happens the next two weeks on Raw, and at the pay-per-view, I can't get too excited.