The question on the minds of millions of wrestling fans after this week’s Monday night RAW is an easy one.
Can CM Punk and Brock Lesnar have an effective angle together?
The answer is far from an easy one.
In the ring, there’s little doubt the two won’t have effective matches, but creatively, it’s an iffy endeavor. In the end, it has more to do with Paul Heyman than Lesnar. Never to be trusted, Heyman stabbed his prized pupil in the back after Punk said he wasn’t in need of Heyman’s services anymore. With Lesnar doing Heyman’s dirty work and crushing Punk with the F-5 on RAW, this angle needs to be more about Heyman and Punk. Anything else won’t work.
While it appears that Punk has his eyes on the World title after a count out win over Alberto Del Rio on Monday, the WWE may have their eyes on a title match between Lesnar and Punk at Summerslam or Survivor Series if the angle develops over time. While it will definitely make money and fans should be excited about it, it’s not going to be epic. Far from it.
Even though the star power is there, something just doesn’t feel right about it all. It could be that Lesnar’s part-time status has made him far less imposing than Punk. It could also be the fact that Lesnar is recognized as a legitimate MMA performer and his role in the WWE is a farce at best, even in a universe that is one. Hell, it’s hard to suspend disbelief when you know Lesnar is capable of destroying anyone he’s in the ring with.
As far as Punk goes, seeing him as a face isn’t as fun as his anti-hero badass self. While it’s great that the days of him and Heyman are over and he won’t weasel out of matches anymore, it seems like his character is missing some of his edge. For this to work, Punk is going to have to carry Lesnar and even Heyman on the microphone and make sure the action can maintain the standard fans expect. As his matches with Triple H have shown us, Lesnar is still über stiff and in order to wrestle a 20 -minute match with Punk, he’s going to sharpen up. Punk is also going to have to sell, a lot. Finding chemistry won’t be easy.
With Lesnar’s lack of a real emotional element in the angle and Punk’s new good guy persona, this feud is more tricky than anyone would have expected.
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