WWE News: Should We Believe CM Punk's Claims That Change Has Arrived?

When CM Punk won the WWE Championship this summer, he promised to bring one thing to the WWE: Change. 

He didn’t really elaborate on what he meant by that or how exactly he would do it, but he seemed pretty confident that CM Punk equaled change in the WWE. 

As we close out 2011, I can’t help but wonder: Did Punk actually deliver on his promise to bring change to the WWE? 

At least for the first several months after Punk’s bold proclamation, the answer to that question was no. While Punk promised that the WWE would be a drastically different place, it really wasn’t. 

John Cena was still competing for the WWE Championship, each episode of Monday Night Raw was opening with the same boring promo, the Divas and tag team divisions still were suffering, etc...

Yet, as we near the end of 2011, it has become pretty clear that Punk’s changes to the WWE are starting to take shape. Although we may not be getting epic Divas matches or anything like that, the changes have indeed come and are still taking place at the moment. 

Those very noticeable changes have come in the form of three specific WWE title-holders: the WWE Champion CM Punk, the United States Champion Zack Ryder and the World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan. 

Punk may have failed to change the WWE in any other major way, but the fact that three Internet favorites are holding three of the top four titles in the WWE speaks volumes about the influence Punk has had on the WWE. 

As recently as June of this year, there was no way that anyone could have predicted the scene that ended Raw a couple of weeks ago: Punk, Ryder and Bryan celebrating in the ring with their titles after winning the main event on Raw. 

At the beginning of 2011, Punk appeared to be creeping up the card but had never really gotten a legitimate, lengthy main-event push during his WWE career. Meanwhile, Ryder was hardly ever appearing on TV and Bryan was wallowing in mid-card hell over on Smackdown. 

The idea that those three would all close out 2011 as champions never crossed my mind, and I highly doubt anyone in America—or the world for that matter—thought this would happen, either. 

And it all happened because of CM Punk. 

Punk opened the door for untraditional WWE superstars like Ryder and Bryan to succeed. 

According to F4Wonline.com (via SEScoops.com), Punk is literally the driving force behind Ryder’s recent push, but that’s in actuality. In the kayfabe world of the WWE, however, Punk’s success as the non-stereotypical WWE star who became one of the biggest stars in the business paved the way for Ryder to get to the point where he is now.

It did the same for Bryan as well. 

When Punk became the hottest act in the wrestling business this summer and was praised both for his personality and his wrestling skills, I can only imagine that Bryan was salivating at the opportunity that Punk just gave him. Had Punk never cut that worked shoot and risen to the top of the WWE at Money in the Bank, I honestly don’t think Bryan would have either. 

What Punk did was show that you don’t have to be some big, jacked-up meathead or larger-than-life figure to be successful in the WWE. What Punk did was show that you can be yourself, wrestle your tail off and you’ll get as far as you want in this business. 

What resulted was what Punk promised would come: Change.