WWE Survivor Series 2011: What We Learned from CM Punk's Win

At WWE's Survivor Series pay-per-view, CM Punk defeated champion Alberto Del Rio to win the WWE Title, much to the delight of the thousands of fans in attendance at the sold out Madison Square Garden.

The clean finish came about after Punk applied the vicious Anaconda Vice move to Del Rio, leading to the cowardly heel quickly tapping out and Punk getting the win. The match itself, while not a classic, was very good and a decent effort from both men.

So, what have we learned from this somewhat surprising victory? 

Well, we learned that, despite inconsistent and sloppy booking this year, Punk is still hugely over as a babyface. Considering all the clean losses (Punk had lost at three pay-per-view events in a row prior to this match) and some extremely weird character development (notably, the supposedly rebellious Punk siding with WWE management and turning into an ass-kisser during the roster walkout angle) since he returned to WWE in August after briefly leaving the company, it would be understandable if fans thought Punk's career had taken a turn for the worst in recent times. Thankfully though, the superstar reaction he got here erased all fears that fans had grown lukewarm to the "Voice of the Voiceless."

Indeed, the triumphant fan reaction for his win in the arena was downright electric and hopefully something that will cement Punk's main event status in the mind of Vince McMahon, who's known to pay extra attention to the audience reactions at MSG and use it as a barometer of how most fans feel.

But while the booking may have renewed their faith in Punk with this victory, it seems that they've lost some in Alberto Del Rio. Heavily pushed as one of the company's top heels since his debut in 2010, Del Rio was pencilled in as the next big thing in pro wrestling, receiving star treatment (and his own personal ring announcer) for most of his run. But still, his main event run can still be considered a flop, with Del Rio not eliciting anything close to the reaction WWE would want its top heel to have.

While Del Rio should shoulder some of the blame for this (his promo work has been rather bland, something Punk even poked fun at on-air on a recent episode of Raw), a lot of it is the fault of WWE's erratic booking team. It's very possible that after having him lose at WrestleMania to Edge (the original plan was for him to go over) and placing him in the upper mid-card for several months after, WWE let his momentum stall and ultimately waited too long to put the belt on him. Not that things were much better when he eventually got the WWE Title, either.

Certainly, giving the belt back to Cena at WWE's Night of Champions pay-per-view (Del Rio had only won the belt for the first time at Summerslam) greatly hurt the Mexican star's main event prospects. Regardless of the fact that Del Rio won it back shortly after, the damage had already been done: fans no longer saw Del Rio as a true heel threat after he lost the title so easily.

By giving Punk (who has hardly been built up as a credible challenger lately) the title, the WWE may be admitting their mistakes and acknowledging how flat and luewarm's Del Rio's title run had become. This can't be good news for Del Rio—but certainly the opportunistic Punk will make the most of this opportunity as he attempts to become the major star many predicted he would be after his run in the summer of 2011.