WWE’s creative team are rapidly approaching an incredibly important fork in the road. Not the Road to Wrestlemania, we have a vague idea who the key players will be there, and CM Punk and Ryback aren’t likely to be among their number. But what those two very much are a part of, is the main event of the annual Hell in a Cell Pay-Per-View, and the outcome of that match encompasses the aforementioned fork in the road.
Given the unparalleled number of twists, turns and last minute booking decisions that occur in the world of professional wrestling, we know that every rumour must be taken with not just a pinch, but a metric (see my spelling of ‘rumor’) ton of salt. That being said, we’ve heard a few key things about the WWE Title match between champion CM Punk and challenger Ryback.
- It will be the final bout of the card.
- It will be the only actual Hell in a Cell match to take place on the night, a departure from years previously where all world title matches took place inside the structure.
- No matter what happens, creative wants to protect Ryback’s character, who is currently undefeated and incredibly popular.
- Creative do not want to end the event on a downer with a typical screw-job ending.
- CM Punk defending the WWE Title against The Rock is the current planned main event of the Royal Rumble in January.
And therein lies the problem. How do you get Mr. Punk from Point A to Point B with the championship still around his waist without a controversial finish when Point A is a title match against Ryback?
Option 1: Punk beats Ryback Clean
While this would avoid garbage being thrown into the ring by fans who have paid to sit through nearly three hours of wrestling and categorically do not want the last thing they see to be a spot of cheating by a villainous champion in a massive anti-climax, it would also completely derail the momentum of Ry-don’t call me Skip Sheffield-back. There have been dozens of monstrous wrestlers who have enjoyed lengthy undefeated streaks in the WWE over the years, but they have almost always been met with complete indifference. While it’s true most people got very bored of Ryback squashing local athletes a long time ago, his work in the last month or two has brought the majority of fans back around on him, and the chants of “FEED ME MORE” that were once allegedly piped in by the editing team are now genuine. Crowds genuinely explode into a fever pitch when Ryback arrives and/or leaves the scene, taking great delight when it’s time to “Finish Him”. The atmosphere these last two weeks when Ryback set his sights on Punk has been electric, and Vince McMahon finally has what he craves: a genuinely-over, young, muscle-bound freak with no intention to quit the wrestling business any time soon. If Punk beats Ryback by pure skill alone, that bubble gets popped in a big way.
Option 2: The Mother of All Run-Ins
Since re-debuting, Ryback has beaten a LOT of people. From the lowly Stan Stansky to former WWE Champion, The Miz. While I can’t say I’ve kept track, I don’t think a single one of these matches has lasted five minutes, and the majority of his opponents have been embarrassed, particularly the twos and threes he beat at once. If you’re looking for somebody to run in and urinate in Ryback’s cereal, there’s plenty of potential candidates. It’s not actually possible for Punk to use a weapon to cheat or get intentionally disqualified given the stipulations of the match, so the number of underhanded tactics with which Punk can defeat Ryback are more limited than usual. How about everybody Ryback has beaten (save the jobbers, obviously) charges the cell and while he mows through the first few waves, they eventually surround him and Punk picks the bones? The visual might be cool, but it’s a little too similar to a year ago when Miz and R-Truth assaulted Cena, Punk and Del Rio and caused a riot with the entire roster at ringside.
Option 3: Ryback beats CM Punk
Imagine it. CM Punk’s 300+ day title run that has withstood Dolph Ziggler, Chris Jericho, Daniel Bryan, John Cena and even the Elimination Chamber comes to its climax at the hands of the undefeated Ryback. Furthermore, imagine if the match lasts five minutes. While that may sound every bit as anticlimactic as if Punk cheated, if the atmosphere is right, it would be one of those moments we talk about for years to come. A star would be made instantly. Obviously Ryback would have to lose the title back to Punk (or Cena) before January, or the plans involving the Rock winning the championship before Wrestlemania would need to be scrapped, but one or two months of Ryback as WWE champion would certainly be worlds more interesting than another slew of rematches between Punk and Cena, and as long as he doesn’t lose the title the very next night, Ryback would be set as a main event player, allowing them to transfer the belt over to someone else and move ahead with all those Wrestlemania plans after all.
So which option should they pick? Well my vote is the third one for the shock factor alone. That’s the beauty of the undefeated streak. Much like Goldberg before, when Ryback comes out you know he’s going to win and win quickly, but all of that has to end when it comes to a main event world title match on PPV, right? What if it didn’t? Pretty cool, huh?
But there is no easy answer, not really. They’re in a difficult situation that has only really come about because Cena injured himself so they gave somebody else a shot while waiting for him to heal and it just so happened to really work. I’m sure this will all be forgotten about by 2013, but from where I’m sitting right now before Hell in a Cell 2012, we could be on the verge of something really special, or really disappointing.
Your move Vince.
Run in, only involving Lesnar because he’s a Paul Heyman guy.