It’s about time CM Punk faced some consequences. Kayfabe consequences, to be clear. Lord knows, the past couple of years for Punk have been all about real-life ramifications, so that’s not what this is about.
This is about feud balance. The storyline scales. Making sure that the CM Punk vs.
Drew McIntyre feud, and future one-on-one match hype, is all it can be. And now that Seth Rollins is in the mix, promising a reckoning, this particular angle may just get the extra footing it needs to keep going. Because we don’t know when Punk vs.
Drew is happening for realsies. SummerSlam seems/seemed like the perfect time for it – as well as Rhea vs. Liv – but that’s all dependent on how injury rehab shakes out for everyone.
Punk screwing Drew at Money in the Bank was an exciting in-the-moment bit of business but it ultimately left an askew aftertaste. It was too close to the Glasgow Screwjob and it undercut the beat-down Drew gave Punk the week prior, which had already occurred, unsatisfyingly, off-screen (perhaps due to Punk’s limited physicality). Now I just want Drew to triumph soooo freakin’ badly.
I’m a huge fan of both professional wrestlers and have been way invested in this superb, drawn-out story, but now it feels like we’re in the Sisyphean weeds. It’s just a repetitive curse for Drew now. Like when Sandman (the comic book deity, not ECW’s chain-smoking Captain America) hexed that guy into having an eternity of waking nightmares-within-waking-nightmare.
