WWE: Analyzing the Pros and Cons of CM Punk's Heel Turn

Since the start of the summer, many members of the WWE Universe were wondering what WWE’s major summer angle would be this year.

With the Nexus attack of 2010 and CM Punk’s pipebomb of 2011 setting the tone for the remainder of those respective summer seasons, it was baffling as to why nothing of that caliber had been set in motion thus far since June.

However, WWE managed to shock us all (again) by having their huge summer angle occur at this past week’s monumental Raw 1,000 event. By the conclusion of the broadcast, we surprisingly witnessed CM Punk turn his back on the WWE Universe by delivering a brutal Go To Sleep to The Rock.

Fans were quick to point out that this was CM Punk’s definitive heel turn, and that’s a difficult point to argue with. They’d been teasing the turn for weeks following Punk’s encounters with Big Show and Eve, while the Straight Edge Savior has even foreshadowed the major occurrence himself on Twitter in recent weeks by referencing “The Devil.”

We’ll have to wait until Raw this upcoming Monday to see if Punk’s “turn” was truly legitimate or only a one-night thing. Personally, I hope to see him remain a tweener going forward, and there’s many reasons why.

Ironically enough, Punk reverted to his villainous persona almost exactly a year after becoming a fan favorite upon his return on the July 25th edition of Raw last year. He’s been a face throughout his entire eight-month reign as WWE Champion, which some fans seemed to be getting bored with.

A year ago, Punk was dropping “pipebombs” each and every week, simply speaking his mind and making inside references that made members of the IWC automatically love him. However, since September, the Second City Saint hasn’t been nearly as edgy as he once was, instead gradually turning into the corporate champion that he once ranted about.

Personally, I’ve loved his face persona, merely because I’m allowed to cheer as loudly as I want once I hear “Cult of Personality” hit the arena. Sure, he’s not as controversial as he was a year ago, but he’s still providing strong matches every time he steps inside that squared circle, so that hasn’t changed whatsoever.

The fans that have been complaining about CM Punk’s lengthy WWE title reign are the same people who were groaning when John Cena was holding the strap, but that’s just typical IWC ridiculousness, right?

Nonetheless, I’m not at all going to say I’m down on the idea of turning Punk back heel, as I find it to be a very intriguing hook going forward. It’s grabbed my attention and certainly has me looking forward to a second coming of Punk’s original rant promo, where this time he’ll focus on why he deserves to be headlining pay-per-views while WWE Champion.

This also means the possibility of seeing CM Punk square off against Stone Cold Steve Austin in a dream match at WrestleMania 29 is now more likelier than ever.

The straight-edge rebel taking on the alcoholic icon is worth major money, and there’s a high chance we could be seeing that dream contest finally come to fruition next spring.

Let’s also not forget about Punk’s pending program with the returning Rock, who announced he’ll be contending for the WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view.

If Punk is still holding the strap come next January (which I’m pretty positive he will be), there’s another highly anticipated bout that was teased to at Raw 1,000 as well as last summer, when Punk targeted Rock during a majority of his rant promos.

With Punk’s newfound heel turn, I hope to see him return to that rebellious character he portrayed last summer, and not the watered-down straight-edge cult he played during his feuds with Jeff Hardy and Rey Mysterio. If he were to once again portray WWE’s outspoken icon, there remains one issue.

During the many rant promos Punk cut last year, he spoke the truth, for which the fans cheered him on. That was mostly because Punk was merely speaking his mind and not insulting those in attendance, causing the fans to slowly favor him as time progressed.

Now, if Punk repeats history yet again, wouldn’t he just continue to be cheered? Having him turn on The Rock to garner those massive boos last Monday was brilliant and all, but Rocky won’t be there till January, so how exactly is Punk supposed to maintain that heat if he’ll be catering to the WWE Universe with his honest speeches?

While a portion of the IWC may have not enjoyed Punk as a face, does it really matter what they think? CM Punk is by far one of the most liked personalities as a whole in the WWE today, with a handful of top fan favorites—such as John Cena, Randy Orton and Sheamus—receiving mixed reactions due to their stale characters.

There’s another thing I wanted to mention. People have complained in recent months that Orton, Sheamus and Cena are all in dire need of character developments. Punk wasn’t that bad as a face, so I don’t see any reason why they couldn’t have turned one of the others before the two-time Money in the Bank winner.

Obviously, Cena will never turn heel, but Sheamus and Orton work better as destructive demons anyway. As far as I know, Sheamus and Orton don’t sell nearly as much merchandise as Punk, whose awesome-looking T-shirts have flown off the shelves like crazy since last summer.

With Punk now a heel, how will that affect his popular merchandise sales? The kiddies won’t continue to buy his shirts since they’ll be booing him, and I can’t imagine the older generation of fans having any need to buy more shirts now that he’s heel.

Of course, Cena will always be the No. 1 face and merchandise seller in the company, but Punk was pretty damn close. I’m anxious to see how that will change now that he’s heel, so time will certainly tell.

It’s very rare to see Cena actually lose a feud, so I’m worried that Punk’s long-lasting WWE title reign will be coming to an end sooner rather than later at the hands of the Cenation leader. Punk was unstoppable as a face, but not in the “burying” kind of way that he overshadowed his opponents like Cena has done in the past.

Sure, Punk may be WWE Champion by the time Royal Rumble comes around in order to face The Rock, but he’ll more than likely drop the title along the way just to add to Cena’s already stacked accolades and give him yet another meaningless title reign that will only last a month or two.

The amount of credible faces and heels is lacking in this day and age, so it doesn’t matter which side of the fence Punk is really on. As I stated before, turning him into a tweener that will see him feud with Cena but also with fellow heels while taking shots at his opponents and management will make him more interesting, and it will not completely destroy the credibility he’s built up over the last year.

I may be getting too far ahead of myself, but WWE could very easily screw up Punk’s heel turn by just feeding him to Cena come SummerSlam. This angle needs to be gone about the correct way in order to work, but I still have faith that it will make for some very compelling television in the coming weeks.

Thanks for reading, Bleachers, and be sure to drop a comment below with your thoughts on CM Punk’s heel turn, whether it’s a good or bad idea, and how it should be handled going forward. As always, your criticism and overall feedback of my latest piece is welcomed and greatly appreciated.

GSM out.

Read the original article here on Wrestle Enigma.

Visit my website at Next Era Wrestling, as well as listen to my SAVE US GSM radio show every Thursday at 10/9c for more of my thoughts and writings, along with WWE/TNA news, reviews, recaps and more.

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