The Problem If Cm Punk Returns

So RAW came to Chicago, and there was some buzz (there always is) that Punk was supposed to come back. Well RAW ended, Punk didn't come back, and guess what he probably won't for more than a year. Fact is fact, Wrestlemania was Punk's goal, his desire. He has said many times that headlining Wrestlemania was the last thing he needed to achieve, and this year was just the last straw. For three years running we have had part time wrestlers stepping into the picture and taking the Wrestlemania main event spot. Guys who had their day and decided to come back for a short stint. Granted Batista is signed for two years but it's the same story. He just walked in and got the main event spot. It robs the younger, more deserving, talent their chance to shine and I can't fault anyone for being fed up with it. Punk held the championship for over a year and didn't even headline a lot of the PPVs in favor of part time wrestlers returning. He more than most had a reason to be fed up, and he left. 

So it's been a big mixed bag of feelings regarding the Punk situation. Part of me (as a Chicago area resident) throws my fist in the air and screams YES! Wrong wrestler I know. I love that Punk did what no one else really does. He saw his position in the company, evaluated his future, and said see ya. He knew the WWE just didn't care enough about him the way they should, they haven't been listening to their fans, and Punk saw no reason to stick around. I say good for him for standing up for himself. Now another part of me feels betrayed. I'm a fan. Punk is a very talented wrestler and it goes beyond home town love. He walked out on the company that belittled him but he also walked out on his fans. Yeah it's really unfortunate that I can't see my favorite wrestler every week. Should I be mad that he walked out? Sure. Should I be happy that he stood up for himself? Sure. Its a double edged sword no matter how you look at it. Now a lot of people don't want Punk back, most people do, among those that do is Vince McMahon who is smart enough to see the financial pull that Punk brings in. He was the number two seller of merchandise and the number one heel. Obviously Vince doesn't want to let that go. Well with RAW in Chicago it was the perfect time for Punk and Vince to have a meeting and work things out. Well it sounds like there was some kind of offer and Punk turned it down. My guess is for Punk it was Wrestlemania main event or bust. 

So chances are we won't see Punk until at least next year, maybe around Royal Rumble time. If I could sidetrack for a  second, my dream scenario is that the number 30 entrant to the Rumble wins and starts celebrating but the bell never rings. Suddenly another timer kicks on and Punk is a 31st entry. Then these two fresh wrestlers have a full match where Punk wins, winning his first Rumble and moving onto Wrestlemania. That would be an amazing Rumble wether you love or hate Punk, and dare I say best for business. Now we have some issues. Punk coming back is what we all want but it's not that easy. The guy turned his back and walked out while under contract. Some people backstage sympathize with him but there are plenty who were happy to see him go. It was no secret that Punk honestly felt he was the best and had a chip on his shoulder, it's the nature of the business he's a part of to show confidence. So let's say he does come back and gets the Wrestlemania main event. Most likely scenario it becomes a three way match that he loses. Fair enough. He forces his way into the main event through his antics, we can't expect him to win. The WWE has their clearly strict and laid out plan and that never included having Punk in the main event. They want Orton vs Batista and are in now way showing any desire to change it, though I'm unsure why. It really feels like they don't watch their own programming. I picture Vince McMahon leaning back in a chair in a dark room locking his fingers saying outloud "You'll all see at Mania." But I think he's going to be very surprised when his heel vs heel match is booed and torn apart. What a great way to end your biggest show of the year.

So would Punk being entered into that match fix it? Absolutely. The fans have shown that they want Cm Punk. We hear the chants. Naturally Daniel Bryan is the real go to for the crowd right now but Punk in the main event would solve so many problems for the PPV, but I'm guessing a lot of people in the back may have a problem with that. There are a lot of younger guys that deserve a main event shot just as much as Punk does. If he was handed the main event because of his temper tantrum it would probably cause a lot of bitterness among the talent. 

The real issue with the Punk situation is the crowd. Of course I want Punk back, and of course I love the chants for support, but the WWE didn't make him leave. He made his choice and did it on his own. Now you could argue that their decisions made him to leave, but honestly it really falls on Punk. Punk wants to be the number one guy but do we really believe that he would want to do the talk shows, and live events the way someone like Cena does? I highly doubt it. Now I love the support and fandom for Punk, but the chants are pretty disrespectful. As much as I love Punk, I love wrestling as a whole more. Now there are plenty of good matches and great wrestlers are performing to Cm Punk chants and not getting the recognition they deserve. Now I fully support Cm Punk chants when the authority is present, but when the Wyatt's and Shield are putting on one hell of a match, why would you want to rob their recognition? I don't get it. 

So do I want Punk back? Absolutely, but I think he should wait until next year. Things need time to cool down. Let his contract expire and come back next January with a contract garunteed for Wrestlemania. The only answer for this year is to put Daniel Bryan in the main event, otherwise Wrestlemania is going to get ripped apart. So what are your thoughts on Punk not coming back in Chicago and the prospect of his future? Sound off in the comments and as always you can find me on Twitter @advent_crash.

HCW: Hardcore Championship Wrestling Episode 3.

The first Season of a new machinima series I am working on called HCW Hardcore Championship Wrestling. This series is meant to be played off as a small off shoot of the WWE. Here all originally created wrestlers, and some parody based wrestlers, will compete in completely undetermined matches controlled by the computer. I will set up the universe mode and let the matches and rivalries set themselves. I will use the story creator to create cutscenes and build the stories but I will craft the stories out of how the computer reacts to each other.

HCW will also have a user interactive component. Basically just by watching the show you can affect the future. As you may notice in this episode that the arena is fairly small looking. Well as the show gains views I will create bigger and better arenas to reflect the increased interest. The show will grow like a real company with rosters expanding and changing as well as the arena. Since HCW is also billed as a smaller part of the overall WWE family, as the show grows I will also include run ins from WWE superstars. So just watch the show and tell your friends to watch the show and let's bring in some changes!

This machinima is created using WWE' 13 and uses WWE imagery but is in no way licensed or affiliated with the WWE as a company. Hardcore Championship Wrestling is completely fictitious and inspired by true wrestling fandom.

The WWE Network is Real!

So for weeks the WWE has been teasing a big, company changing announcement to take place in Vegas. We heard a lot of talk about the future of the business ad all of that kind of stuff, and they managed to pay off the excitement. Now we've heard about the possibility if a network for years and what we got wasn't exactly what we expected, but is more than likely the smarter move. The Network is not its own channel on TV. It's more of a Netflix app but for wrestling. A 24/7 streaming service. This actually makes a lot more sense in the grand scheme of things. Less hassle, less hoops to jump through, and more control on their end. However if the service is as good as their love stream I don't have a lot of hope because it crashed on me multiple times and I had to refresh. Maybe that was just my end, I have no idea. For now I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. So what is the Network? It's an app. Pure and simple. You will be able to use it on your gaming consoles, any smart device like a phone or tablet, and TVs that allow apps. However some devices like certain TVs and the X Box One won't be getting the app until around the summer.

So what is featured on the WWE Network? Simply put, everything. Original programming and reality shows, PPVs will be live streamed, you have access to the entire libraries of WWE, WCW, ECW, and NXT, and they announced other shows like Top 10 Countdown and Monday Night War. Overall its a loaded package. The best part? It's only 9.99 a month! That caught me with an actual wow! I only hope there is a yearly subscription option. So if you're a wrestling fan, it's about to become a lot harder to go outside. Why would anyone anymore? I'm going to need. Lot more pairs of sweatpants and underwear, not to mention stocking up on cereal. On the images they showed during the press conference they listed Total Divas as well which is curious since that is currently on the E! Network so I'm sure there was an interesting deal going on there.

So now let's talk about the actual press conference. Stephanie McMahon was doing a lot of the heavy lifting as the host of the event. Honestly, I was expecting either a complete shit show, or a lot of boring executive talk. I was pleasently surprised. It felt a lot more like an E3 press conference on a condensed scale. We got plenty of stage talking with a screen presentation, but we also got Triple H and Shawn Michaels as DX stealing the show. These two guys have always been hilarious and that was obvious here. Its hard to tell if their mix up with the teleprinter was staged but it came off hilarious and clever nonetheless and I'm not going to ruin it. If you didn't see the video, this part alone was worth watching. The show wasn't incredibly long, or rather didn't feel that way, I think it was only an hour and a half. All honesty I missed the first few minutes because I was late. I'll say two hours at most. There were only a few superstars involved with the show including Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Stone Cold, and naturally John Cena. Otherwise me mostly saw Stephanie introducing everything. There were some interesting train wrecks however. The MLB guy on stage seemed like he was having a stroke (and that relationship wasn't clearly stated either) and there was an awkward segment with an exec that just felt horribly staged with another Teleprompter gag and then him be intimated by DX. It was just awkward.

So what is all of this going to mean for the WWE and their talent? After the announcement I saw a lot of wrestlers and insiders questioning about their pay. Wrestlers get pay bonuses based on PPV buys. Well if everyone is using the app PPV buys might see a drastic drop. How many people are going to pay fifty to sixty dollars when you can pay that for the entire year? Well if this is successful chances are you will get millions of people buying the Network subscription versus the hundreds of thousands that buy PPVS. You do the math. Now as far as the pay boosts for PPVs. Well that's more insider talk that we will probably never hear about but in a perfect world the WWE will be pulling in a lot more money because it is going directly to them trough their own Network versus paying out to other networks. So hopefully they will have more money to throw at their talent. Again, in a perfect world. Those guys and gals have earned it so I just hope they don't get screwed. And what of how TV will work? Will the show lose ratings when people are watching on the app? Will they track ratings on their own Network? What if this Legends House show doesn't work? Will they cancel immediately or let it ride out? The main thing about their own Network is that it's now all on them. They have a lot more responsibility but a lot more control so maybe if their first season of something isn't working then they can keep it around longer than most other networks would and see if it picks up. It's an interesting time not only for the WWE but for television. And now we get to the cherry on top. The release day. February 24th right after Monday Night Raw, the WWE Network goes live.

So what do you think? Are you excited for the WWE Network? Was it a good presentation? What were the pros or cons? Are you going to subscribe or at least check it out? Feel free to sound off in the comments. As always you can reach me on Twitter @advent_crash. Don't have a Facebook but I am on Youtube with my own Wrestling Machinima called HCW: Hardcore Championship Wrestling. Its kind of on hiatus right now but I promise more episodes are coming soon! 

**UPDATE** So looking back on the pricing, they were purposely a little vauge. They said it was 9.99 per month but also said that's if you go in for six months. So it sounds like its 60 for 6 months and 120 for a year. Most subscriptions have a 60 a year deal so this could be twice that, but honestly, there's so much content that it's still a hell of a deal.