WWE: 7 Reasons Why It Doesn't Matter What Side CM Punk Is On

Is CM Punk a baby face, a heel or neither?

That's the question that WWE fans have been asking themselves ever since CM Punk nailed The Rock with a massive clothesline and GTS on the historic 1,000th episode of Monday Night Raw.

I'm not here to debate whether Punk is a bad guy, good guy or somewhere in between, though.

Why? Because it doesn't matter..

Here are seven reasons why it truly does not matter if Punk is a heel or a baby face.

7. He's Not Much Different in Either Role

Some superstars are vastly different as heels than they are as baby faces.

But CM Punk? I don't see that big of a change.

Other than when he was at the pinnacle of his Straight Edge heel gimmick, I wouldn't say that there are any wholesale changes between face Punk and heel Punk.

Sure, he's a little angrier and a little more bitter as a bad guy or even as a tweener. But beyond that, it's mostly just minor changes between the two.

As a face, Punk's a sarcastic and witty talker and a great wrestler, and that remains true even when he's a heel.

Although I'd say Punk seems a little more natural as a heel, there's something both likable and hatable about him in either role.

Whether he's technically a heel or technically a face doesn't mean all that much because in both roles, he seems to just be CM Punk.

6. Fans Will Complain Either Way

No matter what CM Punk does, not everyone will be happy.

When Punk's a heel, someone somewhere will be complaining that he should be face. When he's a face, someone somewhere will be complaining that he should be heel.

I've been guilty of this before, and you likely have been, too.

The second he gets even just a little stale in one role, we advocate for a switch to the other. It's just human nature to do so.

Obviously, this is a result of our short attention spans when it comes to pro wrestling.

When we want change, we want to see it right away. When we aren't happy with something, we immediately express our displeasure with it.

The WWE can't please everybody. Never has, never will.

5. He'll Remain a Top Star No Matter What

While a WWE superstar may be considered a top star as a heel, that may not necessarily be true when he's face.

Take, for example, both Christian and Mark Henry, who won World titles last year as heels, but were never able to do so as baby faces.

That's a problem that many WWE stars have. But not CM Punk.

He has a proven track record of success at the top of the WWE as both a heel (2009-2010) and as a baby face (2008, 2011-present).

Punk is one of the few superstars around who can say that he's reached the climax of the WWE as both a heel and a baby face and stayed there for an extended period.

Many only do one. Punk's already done both.

If you're a Punk fan, it shouldn't matter much if he's considered to be a good guy or a bad guy in terms of the way he's booked. 

He'll be in the main event and World title scenes either way.

4. Punk Has Gotten Too Popular to Make All the Fans Turn Against Him

I'm not sure CM Punk will ever be able to make all the fans turn against him.

He's such a fantastic performer that it remains a possibility, but he's gotten so ridiculously over as a baby face that it seems borderline impossible for him to make the vast majority of the fans hate him.

In other words, Punk is probably never going to be treated like a full-fledged heel or a full-fledged baby face.

Some will cheer him as a face and boo him as a heel. Others will cheer him as a heel and boo him as a face.

If he's playing a tweener role like he has in the past, chances are that the exact same thing will happen.

Punk is just too damn popular now to go back to being the heel he was during his Straight Edge society days or his feud with Jeff Hardy.

He's recognized for his incredible talents as a performer more so than his status as either a heel or baby face.

3. He's Fantastic in Any Role

As I touched on in the last slide, CM Punk performs extremely well in any role.

Make him a face, and he gets the fans to love him. Make him a heel, and he gets the fans to hate him. Make him a tweener, and he gets a little bit of both.

I don't know about you, but I don't like certain WWE stars because they're good guys or bad guys. Rather, I like them because of how well they perform.

Needless to say, Punk is one of the very best all-around performers in the WWE.

I don't care if the WWE portrays him as a Straight Edge heel, a rebellious baby face or somewhere in between.

The bottom line is that Punk has delivered in every role he's ever performed in, and I don't see that changing anytime soon.

2. The Fans Support Who They Want to Support, Regardless of Face/Heel Status

Faces and heels don't matter anymore.

The WWE can portray its superstars as good guys or bad guys all it wants, but at the end of the day, the fans are going to boo who they want to boo and cheer who they want to cheer, regardless of face or heel status.

Fans no longer seem to be worried about whether a superstars actions are cowardly or respectable. Instead, we worry about how well those actions are performed.

If you're a good performer, chances are that you're at least going to get some cheers. If you're a bad performer, chances are you're going to get a lot of boos.

That's precisely why CM Punk's status as a heel, face or neither really doesn't mean much.

He's going to get cheered in any role, just like he's going to get booed in any role.

Whether he's doing the right thing like baby faces do or the wrong thing like heels do, he's still going to be over in some way.

1. The True Heel Is Dead

The true heel is dead, or at least as close to dead as it can be.

Gone are the days when the biggest bad guy in the WWE was booed out of the building, with no cheers whatsoever throughout the arena.

Instead, being a heel has become "cool" and resulted in many of the WWE's top bad guys being more over than the good guys.

This is evidenced by guys like Dolph Ziggler and Daniel Bryan, who have found themselves getting cheered more and more lately despite that fact that they are heels in the truest sense of the word.

Thus, even if CM Punk goes bad, do you think that's really gonna change much? I sure don't.

Punk can be the biggest heel in the world, but in a day and age where heel and face alignments mean next to nothing, it ultimately will not matter.

He will not be a true heel because true heels only get booed, while it's a guarantee that the cheers will still be there for him.

Until the fans can go back to hating the bad guys and liking the good ones (if that ever happens), then whether a guy is technically a heel or technically a face simply isn't going to matter much.

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.