WWE Championship
CM Punk (c) vs. John Cena
As promised, the discussion has led us back to the main event: WWE Champion CM Punk defends the belt against the hometown sorta-hero John Cena. They've fought in Chicago;Punk won. They've done battle in Los Angeles; Punk won, twice. They went to war in St. Louis, on the stage of Raw 1,000; Punk didn't "win", but he managed to retain. Really quick, before I get more into this…
Prediction: CM Punk retains!
FINAL THOUGHTS ON NIGHT OF CHAMPIONS
The fact is plain and simple, in clear black-and-white: John Cena has never defeated CM Punk for the WWE Championship.
So if Cena does manage to win tonight, and that's a really big "if", I want every single staunch anti-Cena advocate to remember that fact. There are two important things John Cena has never done in this business: 1) defeat the Rock, and 2) beat CM Punk to become the WWE Champion. So this match tonight, with Cena in his home town and Punk on his 301st day as Champ, is a big deal. And I really want all the blind haters – and of course everyone is entitled to their own opinion, so long as it's educated – to realize that it has been one whole year since John Cena won the WWE Championship. 363 days since the #1 guy in professional wrestling won the #1 company in professional wrestling's flagship belt.
Do not tell me that the WWE doesn't have faith in CM Punk. Don't tell me that none of Punk's matches matter because he wasn't in the main event slot at a PPV. Perception is in YOUR court, mister or misses cynic. If you buy shows and watch the product to see CM Punk, than he's your top guy, regardless of his position on the card. You show me a fan complaining that "wrestling sucks" because WWE only cares about John Cena, and I'll show you a groundhog that got so sick of winter, he stopped bothering to come up and check the surface. Everything sucks from a hole in the ground, guys.
Take a minute to put the pitchforks and torches down, and look at the state of professional wrestling, right now. TNA has put on a fantastic product both in their PPV's and Impact Wrestling shows since going to a live format. Nothing is spoiled, we get great matches on a weekly basis, and they're full of big umbrella storylines. Over in WWE, people act that it's the "same old sh-t" we've been getting for years; IT'S NOT!
CM Punk has been WWE Champion for 301 days! That is the longest reign in five years, by the way. AND he's in bed (thank god not literally) with Paul Heyman… Drink that in. Daniel Bryan takes up more Raw air time than any other Superstar in wrestling today; count it up, it's true. Dolph Ziggler holds Money in the Bank, there's a relevant Champion in Raw's midcard, and the World title has had some of its best exposure ever in the past year (Christian, Mark Henry, Daniel Bryan, Sheamus, etc.).
It's not a perfect world, and sometimes Raw sucks. That's going to happen with live entertainment; it sure as hell did in the Attitude Era, from time to time. But if you're the type of person constantly picking apart the product you've got to wake up and see the improvement the entire industry is undergoing. I absolutely cannot wait for tonight's show. Two compelling World title matches, Paul Heyman and hope for the tag division have me excited! There's so much potential for tonight's show, and even if it falls on its face the important thing is that wrestling never takes a break. Tomorrow it will come back, regardless of the rating I slap on Night of Champions tonight, and they'll continue on.
The big question is, who will be WWE Champion when Raw goes live tomorrow night?
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