PUNK V.s.HARDY/IS A STAIGHT-EDGE LIFESTYLE SUCH A BAD THING?

Greetings and salutations to all the wrestling fans around the world.This is my first article for the Bleacher Report so bare with me.

One of the most fasinating elements of professional wrestling,to me, is character developement. The attributes of the classic "face" character and his counterpart the evil and maniacal "heel" character. From their introduction to their ever evolving personalities,its the element of professional wrestling that gets us involved.It lays out the groundwork for us, so WE can decide who we are going to cheer for and who we are going to hiss at.

In the past, these lines were clearly drawn. Like the classic western, the wrestler in the white hat was good, and the wrestler in the black hat was bad. Actually for us, good was red & yellow and bad was whatever color his opponent had on that night. It was clear and simple. Vince always made it very clear for us.

This line was permanently scewed with the one of the greatest wrestlers of all time Stone Cold Steve Austin. Here was a character who wore black, cursed like a sailor, stuck up his middle finger, and beat up his boss and we LOVED it. It forever changed the landscape of the business. It blurred the line that divided a face from a heel.

Now, the point of this article-One of the best feuds in the business right now is CM PUNK vs JEFF HARDY. It started with that money in the bank briefcase-which in my opinion he did NOT deserve for a second time.When he cashed it in after HARDY defeated The rated "R" superstar, the one&only, EDGE it was pretty obvious something was a brewing.

Now, normally this equation is very simple.PUNK-a face-just screwd HARDY-a face- so now PUNK is a HEEL. But this time it didn't quite happen that way. When PUNK first appeared as champion he got a pretty good ovation. There were the die hard Jeff Hardy fans that were foaming from the mouth, but generally he had a pretty decent POP. I wasn't quite sure what the powers that be had in store for us. His first couple promos weren't too hateful, he granted Hardy the return match and the story was to be continued.

Then at the PPV he accidentally kicks the ref and gets disqualified. Now of course he was rubbing his eye, it was all a blur, yeah right, we knew what was up. This time after the ppv he comes out with the excuses for everything approach and little by little the boos began to build. Then HARDY faked the eye injury during that SMACKDOWN match, pretty much pulling PUNKS trump card. Ok, I figure PUNK's a heel now, its etched in stone, so how long will he keep the belt. It wasn't going to be that easy.

When he came out, to a chorus of boos, and started to talk about his "Straight-Edge lifestyle", I got nervous. Why is a HEEL talking about a lifestyle choice that,technically is the right way to go. Now, wait a second don't everyone bark at me just yet.I am the last person, and I mean the LAST person that thought I'd be saying this later in life. But now in wresling, my beloved wrestling, they were making a "Live in the Moment" admitted drug abuser a face and a "Straight Edge Lifestyle" a heel. What's wrong with that picture? I know, I know its square, its not cool, but we all know especially in the wrestling business what DRUGS do.I don't even want to get started on that list.

The purpose of this article is not to be a public service announcement. I'm not an advocate for a "straight-edge" lifestyle, I just am conflicted with Vince's depiction of right and wrong with this particular subject. In the past he has used current events brillantly in storylines. The Hogan/Slaughter Gulf War thing was great, for its time, but this is different. After all the tragedies, is Vince promoting an addicts lifestyle as a good thing? Something the smallest wrestling fan is supposed to take away from a WWE event is , boo the sober guy, and praise the drug addict. In my opinion this line gets too blurry for me. This is not a subject to manipulate. This life choice has done to much damage and has destroyed too many lives.

I don't want to drift or start to bore so I'm gonna end there. Please let me know your opinion. Is Vince going too far with this angle?