WWE: Did CM Punk's Promo Effectively Turn Him Face?

Hello fellow Bleachers!

The week is passing by and as you can tell by the numbers of slideshows, articles and comments, CM Punk is still the hottest topic in the professional wrestling world right now. Today I want to write about a possible side effect of his promo, which has been a bit overlooked to my mind, but which could play an important role for the future of this angle (let me know what you think and feel free to comment).

Most of the time, the characters portrayed by wrestlers are actually quite simple when you break them down. Since the tweener has unfortunately become a somewhat lost art, you either have heels or faces.

While these categories seem to be pretty artless and uncomplicated, they are in fact necessary and important; without this clear division of black and white there could not be any fierce rivalries and authentic feuds. The whole concept of kayfabe would not work if you didn't have this good guy vs. bad guy scheme (of course there are exceptions, but this is the basic rule for 99 percent of all feuds).

But when judging a wrestler, a character and a feud, we almost always take aspects into consideration that are not part of those scheme.

When we cheer a heel and want him to win, we do not do this because we approve of his actions. We do this because we find his gimmick more interesting, because he is the more talented worker and deserves a push or because this would add more to the storyline.

So in a way, when writing and talking about an angle, we leave this kayfabe system behind and ascend towards the meta-level of professional wrestling.

So far, I have only stated the obvious, but what does this have to do with CM Punk?

In actually breaking the fourth wall, Punk did something that does not happen very often. Actually, I do not remember any worked shoot which seemed that real.

So here we have something that makes this promo really, really delicate and special.

Punk actually said the truth. Punk talked about all those real meta-facts that make us, the audience, sick when we think about the WWE right now.

But since it is 99 percent sure that Punk still is a member of the roster and that he will compete at Money in the Bank and continue this feud, Punk in a way mixed realities. He addressed real problems of the WWE, yet still he remained in-character.

I can only talk for myself, but this changed a lot for me. Now i not only want Punk to win because he is a way better wrestler than Cena, because I like his style and because he's the best on the mic. I also want him to win because in fact he's now the good guy, because he's the one who stood up and mentioned all those things that were annoying me for years now.

I feel this feud is now more than a typical heel vs. face encounter. I feel the outcome of this feud is important for the whole future of WWE.

I know that in fact the whole IWC also senses that this feud is the most pivotal in years. There are some problems resulting from this. First of all, every wrestling fan above the age of 12 will be against Cena. Okay, this is nothing really special, but this time, the reasons are not the usual ones.

There's absolutely nothing the world would gain from another Cena win. In fact, this result would hurt the WWE so badly. I also feel that the disappointment of Punk losing will go far beyond the feeling we had when he lost his countless other feuds against the top faces of the company.

With mixing realities, Punk turned Cena into the person we all know he really is. He is not the superman of the WWE, in fact he is one of the main problems. All this real-life animosity against the portrayal of John Cena is now part of a storyline, a storyline that transcends the borders of kayfabe and reality.

I hope you understand my point of view—this is something extremely exceptional. If Cena really wins, the heat against him will reach a whole new dimension.

We all know the crowd in Chicago and we can say that Cena would be very, very lucky if the crowd is evenly split.

And let's not mention that we all would dislike the WWE even more than we already do if Cena comes out on top. It would finally prove that they really don't care about those things pointed out by Punk.

I—and I know the majority of you will be with me—am going to root for CM Punk. And I'm not going to do this for any abstract reason. I'm going to do this because I really, really want him to win and because I can relate to him.

It's been a long time since I have been that emotionally involved in a feud. I fully admit, the last time I deemed a feud as important as this one, I was still a mark.

And that is why CM Punk effectively turned face for me this Monday.