Straight Edge Failure. An Indepth Analysis Of CM Punk's Straight Edge Society.

So its over. The Straight Edge Society had the potential to be a one of the biggest stables in wrestling history and what we got was the biggest failure in recent wrestling history. A number of questions rise out of the rubble of this grouping. How did things go so wrong? Who's at fault for its lack of success? and in my opinion the best question of all, what could the Straight Edge Society have achieved?

Well any good chef will tell you that too make a great meal you need decent ingredients so lets start there. The Original members of the SES were CM Punk and Luke 'Festus' Gallows. Now CM Punk is a former 3 time World Heavyweight champion and the only man to win two Money in the Bank matches. He was the top Heel in the business and was on fire with his mic work and his in ring work. Luke Gallows had been stuck with the lame duck that was the Festus gimmick. Even with this handicap he had still been given a decent push and had got some decent matches e.g. Main event with the undertaker. I personally was impressed with his in-ring work and hoped for when he was given a decent gimmick and could be properly unleashed on the WWE. Next to join was Serena. She was a 'fan from the crowd' and had no previous WWE run. She was chosen solely because she was willing to shave her head but I have to give credit where credits due. She not only managed to still be attractive with a shaved head but also from what I've heard, she can wrestle a damn good match. Finally we come to the masked man, Joey Mercury. I was a big fan of Joey and was saddened when he not only left WWE but went on to retire with a long term injury. So I was extremely happy when it was announced that he was returning. He was part of a top class tag team in MNM and was unlucky that Jonny Nitro was so good that he was over-shadowed.

Now lets talk about the story of the SES. When Luke Gallows was first introduced he was big bad Luke Gallows. He took out Matt Hardy and had numerous tag victory's with Punk. Punk was at his best. He was the story of the Royal Rumble and the Smackdown! Elimination Chamber, with his in match promo's. During this time, Serena was added to the group and Punk's NXT rookie Darren Young flirted with joining. This I believe was the first mistake where the SES was concerned, but I'll explain more later. Things were on the up for the SES with a Tag Team Title match on Raw, losing only to The Miz and Big Show in a Triple Threat Tag Team match. Then a highly anticipated match with Rey Mysterio at WrestleMania XXVI which could have been a match of the year candidate if given more time. The match was for Rey to join the SES and again the fact that he didn't I believe was a big mistake. The addition of Rey would have given the stable more credibility and would have made for interesting storylines of Rey struggling with being forced to go along with the SES. Then we had a steady downward spiral where the SES would lose more and more matches. It started off with Luke Gallows getting squashed in every match he wrestled, and grew into CM Punk being embarrassed every week on Smackdown! by who ever fancied having a pop. Then when Joey Mercury was introduced into the mix he just slotted into the role of jobber next to Gallows. The SES hit rock bottom at Summerslam when they were beaten in a 3-on-1 handicap match by Big Show.

So what's next for the SES? CM Punk is in a worse position now than he was before the SES, when he should have become a credible World Champion on the back of SES's heat. Luke Gallows and Joey Mercury are nothing but jobbers when they should be credible mid-carders with secondary titles under their belt. Serena has been released from the company. She'll go back to the indies and hopefully will one day make it back to WWE, but she should be pushing it in the WWE Divas, getting shots at the Diva's title. Its a shame that things went so wrong with the SES but there is still time to partially fix things. Hopefully Punk, Gallows and Mercury will now get a decent push but there this a good chance that Gallows or Mercury or both could be released within the next couple of months and that would be a waste of two talented performers. CM Punk is safe, he's one of the best Heels of our generation and WWE can't afford to lose him.

So in conclusion, the SES may have been killed off by a mixture of Serena's refusal to show dedication to her craft and live the straight edge lifestyle, and Joey Mercury's pectoral injury and 6 month lay off, but it was dying from an illness bred by WWE's bad booking and lack of ability to build up stables.