Sidenote: If you get the double meaning in the title, you win extra e-points.

~Some good/descriptive/impressive opening here~

Cutting to the chase…

CM Punk cut one of the greatest promos wrestling fans have not only seen in a long time, but one of the best ever. It was a shoot, make no mistake about that, which he had permission to do (if he didn’t, he wouldn’t have made it on stage with a mic, let alone sat there for 6min). Take that for what you will….the bigger picture here is that CM Punk created a “moment”.

Throughout wrestling history, there have been countless “moments”: Roddy Piper splitting a coconut over Jimmy Snuka’s head, Shawn Michaels superkicking Marty Jannetty through the Barbershop window, Hulk Hogan siding with the Outsiders, and then there’s the one that fans have been talking about since Monday night…the Austin 3:16 promo.

What makes “moments” different from moments? Simple: “moments” are spectacular and lead to something great; moments just happen.

As I mentioned, the majority of wrestling fans have been comparing Punk’s promo to the “Stone Cold” Steve Austin’s “Austin 3:16” promo, from the 1997 King of the Ring. While I definitely can see the similarities, the “Austin 3:16” promo led to Austin becoming the biggest star in WWE history. The “Austin 3:16” promo had a hand in shaping the Attitude Era. The “Austin 3:16” led to something great.

Now, I’m well aware that it was about six months before Steve Austin was really ascending the ladder, after his King of the Ring promo, and that it hasn’t been yet a week since Punk’s promo. However, WWE’s recent storyline trackrecord, would imply that this “moment” will go down the tube. I’d really like to believe, have faith, that WWE will make this “moment” into one incredible storyline, and that it will usher in a new era.

Let’s take a look at some fairly recent WWE storylines, that had immense potential, yet fell flat, shall we….:

– Randy Orton vs. HHH :

Orton took out Vince and Shane McMahon, RKO’d and DDT’d Stephanie, and got HHH to “reveal” himself. There was a house brawl, where the cops arrested HHH. Oh yeah, and the actual match, took place at WrestleMania 25; the freaking silver anniversary of the show of shows. This storyline should have been huge….but, wasn’t really. In fact, it was pretty dull looking back. It just took the norm route.

-The Nexus

Ah, the Nexus faction, formed out of young Lions/Hyenas/Wolves/Wild Dogs; what a shocking debut they made. Then Daniel Bryan was fired two days later, and the whole shebang went downhill from there. They preached a “bigger picture” that has turned out to be as real as TNA’s TV Ninjas. They took out WWE Hall of Famer, Bret Hart, which got us Anonymous General Manager AOL 4.0…who is still chiming in a year later. Speaking of a year later, no one from the original group is doing sh!t now.

-HHH vs. The Undertaker

Undertaker makes his return on the much hyped 2/21/11 edition of Monday Night RAW, only for HHH to immediately interrupt him, and challenges his WrestleMania streak. Oh, it was a great match, no doubt, but there’s also no doubt that it was a horrible storyline. The buildup was nothing but video packages.

-Christian Winning the World Title

Huge “moment”….over in three days. You can argue that taking the title off Christian led to a storyline all you want, the fact of the matter is, the “moment” was ruined, and can never be re-done.

Monday night, fans around the World had their excitement for wrestling renewed, myself included. After a bit, the initial buzz subsided, and I began to look back on some past WWE storylines. I lost hope that CM Punk’s “moment” would turn into anything spectacular. WWE has let us down, time after time, after time, again. Why should buy into the thought that they won’t screw up this time around?

Sure, we might get Punk vs. Austin out of this (a sure to be classic match), however, you still have to have a storyline…which isn’t exactly WWE’s strong-suit.

So, I ask you, now that the initial excitement has died down: Do you have faith that the WWE will make something out of CM Punk’s epic promo? Do you have faith that the “moment” will lead to something more?

Thanks for Reading,

J.