(Note from Ray. Hey guys, this is a site project called a ”Rambling Road To WrestleMania”, each Sunday we’ll provide a column related to WM. James has kicked it all off with this column, it’s very creative and old-school type booking. Next Sunday will be…well you gotta wait and see! They’ll be interviews, top 10 matches and much more! Hope you enjoy.)
How I would book it. CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho. WrestleMania 28
By ViolentShadows
Starting at the Elimination Chamber, the feud between these two would finally get physical. CM Punk goes into the Elimination Chamber as WWE Champion, but after going through the match being on the offensive for the most part, he loses the title to a sneaky Chris Jericho who gets the win after taking advantage of a distracted CM Punk who had been teamed on all night by hungry competitors wanting to be champ. Elimination Chamber would go off the air with Jericho celebrating and calling himself the best in the world….
Raw – Monday Feb. 20th. CM Punk opens the show to a positive crowd reaction although he seems angered. After losing the WWE title in a match against 5 other men, Punk proclaims that he wants his re-match in a one on one match against Jericho in the main event of the night. Punk mentions that Jericho only won the title after Miz and Ziggler ganged up on him all night getting the cheap victory. Punk tells the crowd what happened, happened…but tonight he wins back the WWE Title and heads to WrestleMania as champion.
Enter Chris Jericho. Coming out to huge heat, Jericho works the crowd and continues to cheer and scream and acting elated. Jericho can barely speak on the mic due to the crowd being so involved and angered that Jericho is now champ instead of Punk. Jericho tells Punk he has no issue giving him his rematch, but there’s one little thing in his contract that no one knows about…
Music hits and John Laurinaitis comes out to the ring to major heat. He shakes Jericho’s hand and goes to shake CM Punks but Punk won’t have anything to do with it. The Interim GM of Raw takes the microphone and tells the universe that when he signed Jericho to Raw, one of the sacrifices he had to make was giving Jericho a full 60 days to defend a title if he ever became champion, instead of 30 due to him being a rock star and needing to also go on tour or play a huge rock show. Jericho, being booed out of the building gets back on the mic and tells everyone that he has bigger and better things to do tonight instead of give Punk a re-match, as Fozzy is playing on Raw to celebrate Jericho’s win.
Sheamus’ music hits and he makes his way down to the ring to a loud pop. He takes the mic and reminds everyone that he won the Royal Rumble, and Jericho won’t have a choice but to face him at WrestleMania if he decides to challenge for the WWE Title. This angers Jericho but also puts a smirk on the face of Punk who’s still peeved. Sheamus keeps going taunting Jericho but then says that he has unfinished business with Daniel Bryan, who’s been running his mouth thinking he’s a big shot. Sheamus lets Jericho know that he won’t be going after the WWE Title at WrestleMania, which leaves the door open for CM Punk to challenge for his rematch instead.
CM Punk with a huge grin takes the mic and lets everyone know that he will be taking his mandatory rematch at WrestleMania, which gives Jericho plenty of time to get ready and cancel any crappy shows he has planned. John Laurinaitis tries to con Sheamus into challenging for the WWE Title so Punk doesn’t get a WrestleMania shot, but Sheamus tells him “sorry about your luck, John.”
Laurinaitis is heard telling Jericho that everything will be fine and they’ll find a way around it. At this time Jericho is freaking out and leaves with the belt throwing a hissy fit. CM Punk leaves the ring to a happy crowd with a grin on his face, while John stands in the ring looking dumbfounded.
Fast forward to WrestleMania. CM Punk challenges Chris Jericho for the WWE Title.
Here’s where things get interesting. I decided not to pick the fairy tale ending which would have CM Punk win because to be that would be too obvious. If I was booking, I’d have Sheamus win the WHC and move over to Smackdown being the top face over there to feud with a heel Orton. I would have the CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho match be very long, technical and tight and at least 45 minutes. The men would put on an insane, show stopping performance which would make itself one of the better WrestleMania matches in history. In the last 5 minutes of the match I would have Mr. Laurinaitis come down to the ring to once again cause drama. Although the match has been close, CM Punk looks to be getting the upper hand.
John goes over and whispers something to the time keeper. This instantly gets people thinking there is a screw job about to happen. Not so fast, as when CM Punk sees this he tries to get his hands on John only to be stopped by the ref who tells him to stay in the match. Punk goes back to stomping Jericho then gets him up top for the GTS. As soon as Larinaitis sees this he jumps up on the ring to do his best to distract the ref. No luck, but instead CM Punk sees him and spins around allowing Jericho’s feet to hit the refs head and knock him out. Punk hits the GTS but is clearly pissed off as he can’t pin due to the ref bumped. Punk decides to go after John and chases him around the ring, finally getting his hands on him long enough to throw in a couple punches. Jericho is now playing possum in the ring while the ref is slowly coming to. Punk back in the ring for the cover but only gets a 2 count. Punk picks up Jericho who’s acting like dead weight for another GTS, but it’s turned into a Codebreaker. Jericho gets the pin, and continues going on as WWE Champion.
At this point Jericho and John are celebrating together while John is rubbing his swollen, punched in face. The two men have smug looks on their face and are rubbing the victory in CM Punks face when all of a sudden….
“Time to play the game”
HHH makes his way to the ring and grabs the mic. He tells John after that performance it’s obvious John is letting his personal motives get in the way of Raw and the board of directors made the wrong choice keeping him in the position. HHH tells John he has two options…number one is to resign right now. Quit, leave and give up his interim Raw GM position or…OR…option 2, he can face CM Punk in a one on one cage match at the next PPV, and if he wins, he becomes Raw GM full time. If John loses? He loses both the interim Raw GM position and the EVP of talent relations position. John whispers to Jericho then holds up the mic to inform HHH and CM Punk that he has himself a match! CM Punk vs. John Laurinaitis will happen in a cage at the next PPV. HHH also forgot to mention one thing to Jericho…tomorrow night on Raw CM Punk will have one more chance for the WWE Title in a no DQ match, with HHH as the special guest ref. CM Punks music hits and he and HHH celebrate in the ring as Jericho and Laurinaitis leave whispering and whimpering to the back.
Hope you guys enjoyed my version of “how I would book it” for this match! Let me know what you think!
James Bones
@violentshadows
violentshadows@hotmail.com
Ringsidehustle.com 
Nice write up!
What I like most about this is the old-school type booking. There’s more controversy as such involved. I think the problem would be getting Jericho that hated that he’d be practically booed out of the building. I don’t think the fans would boo Punk over Jericho, but still see it hard to get Jericho that hated. I like the role John L plays in this, it’s very fitting. One problem with HHH is would it be fitting having him in while he’s involved in a big match already? I like how Sheamus just comes out, even though you know he’s not going to pick the WWE title to chase after.
It was a nice write up and some great ideas 🙂
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I love this idea. But you know WWE is not gonna do this because they have incompetent writers and we all know incompetent WWE writers have no sense of Wrestling logic 😉
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A few thoughts…
Crowd reactions are hard to book, especially with a star like Jericho involved.
Would prefer the WWE title not to once again be switched about, and screwy stuff not to happen at WM.
Oh, and Sheamus is already a SD star, stupid Supershow shiz 😛
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A How I Would Book It column? Now I know exactly how Jericho feels.
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lol
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So you’re booking CM Punk vs. Johnny Ace in Chicago at Extreme Rules? That might be a decent match. We almost got that match on December 26 on RAW when JL said he would face CM Punk if Punk survived the Gauntlet Match.
I don’t like the ending to WrestleMania. That sounds like a good ending for RAW but I can’t remember the last WM that ended with a promo.
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How about have an actual troll face off against an actual pipebomb?
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Thanks for the read guys. Basically I tried mixing how they’re booking stuff now in WWE (really off the wall, title switches, weird stories that don’t make sense) and mixed it with what I would like to see. I know I could have done it all in a super fantastic mark out way, but I tried keeping some of the dumb story lines they’ve got going.
As for HHH being involved and being in a match…I’m not sure how that would work. He is the boss, so he might just have to do double duty. I’m thinking the WWE Title match would happen way before HHH/Taker anyways, so this would give HHH an even bigger “face” push for the night. I’m still hoping I don’t have to see HHH vs. Taker. lol.
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I get what you’re saying but what I like about that ending would be to do with the fact it’s not the main event match anyway, so I don’t think it would upset fans.
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I forgot it’s not the main event. Still, weird thing to happen during WrestleMania. Save it for RAW.
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and yeah Tony, I was actually hoping to get to see Ace in a WWE ring vs. Punk. I wish that match would have happened, so I wanted to rebook it to finish the feud off.
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I’ll be at Extreme Rules so I would be okay with that match.
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In Chicago?
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Yep.
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Bastard! lol
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haha…I’m hoping Jericho is there…haven’t seen him since September 2010.
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I heard that he was leaving after a few months, so you may not. But he should be back for Summerslam.
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What if Jericho wins the WWE Championship at WM?
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I guess he won’t, but you never know.
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I want to see Jericho one more time…he’s an amazing in-ring performer. He’s the HBK of my generation.
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There’s always a Fozzy concert. lol
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Is Jericho going to do a lionsault off the stage and onto the crowd?
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I’d love that! lol
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Great read dude, I hope you’re completely right and that Sheamus stays on SD, I want to meet him so badly on the European tour in April. I checked today with the Hilton hotel over here and they’re totally booked out on the day the WWE is over. 😦 I hope to god someone cancels their room that night, cos I need to stalk them.
As for the article, I definitely want to see Punk/Jericho and your idea with HHH getting involved would be good too. I read on a dirtsheet that the WWE definitely wants to go ahead with a Punk/Ace match which would be great viewing, not technically but comically. 🙂
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Left you some captions.
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I love how It’s booked, except for Jericho going over at Mania, and the way it would happen, the WWE Title need to stay in one place, I already expect Jericho to win it at Elimination Chamber, so Jericho keeps the belt for two months before it goes back to Punk, hopefully for a long reign.
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I’m tired of “Punk hopefully gets a long reign”.
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Think Jericho-Punk feud could be one of the best ever is they are allowed some creative freedom because we have seen what both can do on the mic. Also I think something good to do would not put Undertaker in a predictable 1-vs-1 match that we know he will win. Think put ‘taker in a match witth Punk, Jericho, HHH, HBK and Kane, then announce his retirement, that match would be epic
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Great write up. I disagree with using the semi-main event of wrestlemania to start the build to a match at the next PPV mind. This would devalue the match and the biggest show of all time for the sake of a b-show the next month. I also feel that run ins, dusty finishes or general Vince Russo booking of wrestlemania matches takes away from the prestige of the event.
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Howdy, I always appreciate write ups such as this, especially as I was a writer for an E-Fed for a couple of years, however I find the booking for these two stars pretty poor.
Chris Jericho is one of the most decorated wrestlers in history who learnt his trade in the Independents well before Punk, Jericho like HBK, was able to get himself at such a high level in the Wrestling/Sports Entertainment world even though he didnt have the huge body type Vince used to look for. If anything Chris Jericho paved the way for stars like Punk and Bryan.
Therefore no way should HHH, Laurainitis or anyone else should get involved directly with the match at WrestleMania. Someone commented on old school booking, I dont know how them making a mockery of what should be the most entertaining match in terms of wrestling ability at the Grandest Stage of them all is old school or good booking.
WWE need to book Jericho just as strong as Punk and stray away from fortunate victories that they are seemingly giving the heels every week. I am a huge Jericho and Punk fan but the truth of the matter is, they need to make this feud about THEM, no one else. Laurainitis has enough to deal with after Mania then having to get involved with this feud and diluting what should be a big feud just because of them.
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