CM Punk Heel Turn: How Does It Compare to WWE's Past Major Summer Angles?

The WWE has had a recent trend of “major summer angles” that are meant to increase interest during the down summer months and build up some momentum as we head to the fall. 

For the past several years, these have been blockbuster storylines, all of which have gotten people talking. 

The latest major summer angle is, of course, CM Punk’s heel turn on the 1,000^th episode of Raw, when the WWE Champion refused to help John Cena as he was being attacked by Big Show and then blasted The Rock with a huge clothesline and GTS.

No one saw it coming. 

Even though there were rumors that this year’s major summer angle would begin on Raw 1000, this was undoubtedly a shocking twist that definitely delivered in the surprise department. 

It’s safe to say that Punk’s heel turn came completely out of the blue and has turned the WWE upside down. But how does it compare to the company’s other recent major summer angles? 

Let’s take a look, with an analysis of the biggest summer angles of the past five years.

2007: Mr. McMahon's Limousine Explosion and His Illegitimate Child

On June 11, 2007, Raw ended with Mr. McMahon stepping into his limousine, only for it explode into smithereens just a few seconds later.

I'd love to know exactly where this storyline was headed. Unfortunately, we never found out.

The real-life Chris Benoit murder-suicide tragedy caused the WWE to pull the plug on this angle before it could even get started.

Following the deaths of the Benoits, the July 25th edition of Raw, which was supposed to be a "memorial" for Mr. McMahon, was replaced with the infamous Benoit tribute show that looked really bad on the WWE's part in hindsight.

Mr. McMahon would eventually return to TV on Aug. 6, where he essentially dropped the entire "Who rigged McMahon's limousine to explode?" angle by saying that he staged his own death.

That very same night, Jonathan Coachman revealed that someone had filed a paternity suit against McMahon, claiming that he had fathered her bastard child.

As many of us remember, this storyline didn't play out quite like we expected it to, either.

While it was initially believed that Mr. Kennedy would be revealed as McMahon's illegitimate son, he was suspended in the middle of the storyline for purchasing anabolic steroids, human growth hormone, and an anti-estrogen drug from an internet pharmacy.  Instead, Hornswoggle was revealed as McMahon bastard child, although that would later turn out to be untrue as well.

Grade: F

Wow. Both of these angles really got screwed up, huh?

Due to circumstances outside of the WWE's control, they were forced to drop the "Who done it?" angle that resulted from the limousine explosion, and the same thing happened with Kennedy and the illegitimate son angle.

Instead of someone being revealed as the mastermind behind McMahon's limo explosion and a major storyline starting as a result, that went absolutely nowhere because of the Benoit tragedy.

Then, in an attempt to make up for that, the WWE tried to create the illegitimate son angle that was ruined by another problem outside of the WWE's control.

Unfortunate circumstances led to these angles failing, but they failed miserably, nonetheless.

2008: The Stage Collapses on Mr. McMahon During His Money Giveaway

Yep, another angle with Mr. McMahon at the forefront.

During the WWE Draft episode of Raw on June 23, 2008, McMahon was continuing his million-dollar giveaway that he had started a few weeks prior when, out of nowhere, the stage collapsed on top of him.

The entire arena was left in shock as McMahon lay trapped under the broken stage apparatus after giving away $500,000 of his own money.

Shane McMahon would speak on his father's behalf on the following Raw and reveal that the McMahon family would not be revealing any details on Mr. McMahon's condition.

Instead, the infamous Mike Adamle was appointed the new General Manager of Raw, and Mr. McMahon did not appear on TV again until January 2009.

Grade: D-

The biggest problem I had with this angle? Nothing really came out of it.

You would think that the WWE would follow up on this with some sort of major occurrence, but as far as I can remember, that didn't happen.

Instead, it seemed like there were only two reasons why this angle really occurred: To stop McMahon from giving away all of his money and to write him off of TV.

Yeah, that's it.

What a waste of yet another potentially epic turn angle.

2009: Mr. McMahon Sells Raw to Donald Trump, Begins Using Guest Hosts

At least in my view, the most memorable storyline from the summer of 2009 was the fanatic feud between CM Punk and Jeff Hardy that followed Punk's great heel turn.

But do I think that that was the WWE's "major summer angle" that year? Of course not.

The supposed biggest angle of that summer--much to the surprise of no one---involved, you guessed it, Mr. McMahon.

On the June 15, 2009 edition of Raw, McMahon revealed that he had sold Raw to his longtime nemesis, Donald Trump. But on the following Raw, McMahon bought Raw back from Trump for twice the money that he bought it for, effectively ending that angle.

Then, on the June 29th Raw, McMahon announced that instead of running the show himself, he would now appoint a different celebrity guest host to run it every week.

Grade: D

Along with the Punk/Hardy rivalry, I'd probably consider the feud between DX and Legacy to be more important than this "Mr. McMahon sells Raw" nonsense.

After all, this "angle" was basically just a glorified announcement.

Had Trump stuck around for a while and perhaps battled McMahon for control of the WWE down the road, this might have been worth it.

But no. Trump ran Raw for just week, McMahon bought it back, and then announced the start of the celebrity guest host concept.

Well, that was pretty stupid.

All McMahon needed to do was make that announcement rather than giving us the tease of the start of a big angle and then failing to do anything of note with it.

2010: The Nexus Invades

The June 7, 2010 edition of Raw featured one of the most shocking conclusions in the show's history.

The main event match between John Cena and CM Punk was interrupted by the debuting Nexus faction, comprised of NXT Season 1 winner Wade Barrett and the seven other competitors on the show.

The group interfered in the bout, laid a brutal beatdown on both Punk and Cena as well as anyone around the ring before trashing the ringside area, leaving the live crowd absolutely stunned in the process.

Barrett, the leader of Nexus, would go on to demand contracts for the seven other members of the group, and after Raw GM Bret Hart refused, Nexus attacked him and would go on to attack several other roster members (as well as legends and Mr. McMahon himself) and continue to interfere in matches.

Ultimately, each member of the group would sign a Raw contract and go on to feud with the WWE's top two stars, John Cena and Randy Orton, for the remainder of 2012.

Along the way, several members of Nexus were exiled from the group, Barrett tried to turn Cena to the dark side, and Team WWE would face the Nexus in a huge 7-on-7 match at SummerSlam.

Grade: B

The debut of the Nexus was awesome, genuinely leaving me in awe for the first time in years and creating a huge interest in the WWE product at the time.

But the problem wasn't with the Nexus' debut or even how is what it booked immediately afterward. It's what happened at SummerSlam that killed any chance the group had of being successful.

Once the Nexus lost to Team WWE at SummerSlam, all their momentum was lost, and they were no longer viewed as a serious threat to everyone in the WWE.

It was all downhill from there, as the creative team failed to capitalize on such a potentially great angle by involving Cena, failing to turn him heel and making his "firing" mean next to nothing.

The Nexus slowly began to lose its members, Barrett never won a World title (despite getting multiple WWE title matches), and outside of Barrett, there wasn't much to the group.

The creative team could have booked this group to be one of the most dominant factions in history, but the feuds with the ever-so-protected Orton and Cena basically guaranteed that that wouldn't happen.

2011: CM Punk's Worked Shoot Promo

It was on June 27, 2011 that CM Punk dropped a pipe bomb for the ages.

Donning a "Stone Cold" Steve Austin t-shirt, the often overlook Punk sat on the Raw stage, grabbed a microphone and spent five minutes blasting the WWE in an epic worked shoot that blurred the line between what is scripted and what is real.

Punk promised to bolt the WWE after winning the WWE Championship at Money in the Bank and to take the WWE title with him.

He was initially suspended for his scathing comments toward the WWE, but was reinstated just a week later and wound up doing just what he said he'd do: Beating John Cena for the WWE title at the MITB PPV in his hometown of Chicago.

Punk's real-life contract situation was unclear at the time, so following his MITB win, he did not appear on Raw for weeks. In the meantime, Rey Mysterio won the finals of a WWE Championship tournament on the July 25th Raw to become the new WWE Champion, only to lose the title to John Cena later that night.

But after Cena's big win, Punk would make his triumphant return to the WWE with his WWE title in hand, leading to a match between Punk and Cena to determine the Undisputed WWE Champion at SummerSlam, which Punk won.

Grade: A

Punk's pipe bomb worked incredibly well in that it established him as a huge fan favorite and turned him into the hottest act in pro wrestling and one of the WWE's top stars.

After years of being passed over, Punk finally became firmly entrenched at the top of the WWE totem pole.

But I can't give the WWE a perfect grade because what could have been angle that played out over four, five or six months ultimately lasted less than two. 

Punk should've stayed away from the WWE for several months, and he never should have dropped the WWE Championship to Alberto Del Rio mere seconds after beating Cena in that phenomenal SummerSlam match.

Again, this angle was phenomenal in that it got the entire wrestling world buzzing and helped launch Punk into superstardom.

But had the WWE been a little more patient,it could have been even more fantastic than it already was.

2012: CM Punk Turns Heel

So, where will CM Punk's heel turn rank when it's all said and done?

At least up to now, the angle has been executed extremely well.

Having Punk turn heel by screwing over The Rock and John Cena was a great decision because of the sympathy that they will draw as big-time baby faces (and the heat Punk will get as a result), while Punk staying away from Twitter to sell the heel turn only makes things better.

That being said, it's far too early too give a grade to Punk's heel turn.

I love it so far because no one saw it coming, and it has the potential to result in some great storyline progression down the road. 

But that's all it has right now: Potential.

We all know that the WWE creative team is one bad move away from screwing up this turn royally, so I'm going to save my final judgment until the angle plays out.

Still, that won't prevent me from saying that Punk's actual heel turn was damn near perfect, which is a good sign of things to come.

Grade: Incomplete

Drake Oz is a WWE Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter and ask him any wrestling-related questions on Formspring.