>>14318387we reached a point where the business was big enough that angles were separate from the success of the business.
after attitude era wrestling has been on cruise control. it hit critical mass. angles dont matter. cody sucks. but hes marketable. so cody is great. punk sucked. but hes marketable.
they were made champion because someone has to be for the whole thing to work, but the whole thing after austin and the rock and hogan and even cena is on autopilot. the whole thing.
it doesnt matter if cody broke the record for most sold merchanise in a year ever--he didnt break anything. he was there to have a record broken in an industry that hit critical mass.
the pipebomb is one of the most egregious examples of angles being worthless in modern wrestling. a completely overwrought 'behind the scenes' angle in an age where wrestlers post on twitter, and cook on youtube, that went no where and exposed nothing.
punk was the guy who was 'threatening to bring wresting down' by killing kayfabe. it's a great story honestly. if he was a stronger physical presence, he could have been like angle where he was so good he was undeniable even as a heel. but hes sort of just okay. hes not bad. just okay. same with cody, really.
I'd almost say punk was power rangers wrestling, but that makes it sound like I'm shitting on power rangers, which was a great show, but Punk and his fame is when things really hit the rails for disproportional hype. Hype that was way bigger than anything matching the reality.
It was kids being hyped by a 'punk' image and people being hyped by the 'idea' of a kayfabe killer 'destroying the business'. Great fucking ideas. But what really happened was some bullshit whining, some underperforming physicality, and being overpraised for being able to string a smarmy sentence together on the mic.
He and cody are very similar imo.
