This Punk/Shield Booking

[Professor Chaos]

The Shield have taken out so many super teams over the past year and Punk beats them all by himself on Sunday. Since Punk was the only guy that I could tell not on the roster on the stage on RAW I expected Cult of Personality to hit and he calls out Orton. Instead he's booked in a rematch with the Shield this time with 2 partners, and he's in the match for about 2 minutes and takes the pin. Really? The past two days have just made all 6 men in that match look like chumps. I don't get you WWE Creative.

[Instant Classic]

Alls I know is if it was anyone but Punk(or Bryan) who beat Shield 1 on 3 no one would like it.

[shaker]

Punk got lucky due to an eye injury on Reigns and the Shield taking him lightly.

Last night they regrouped and won.

If Punk would have steamrolled over all 3, yeah it's something to worry about. But he barely won, then booked it outta there to make sure he didn't get beat down after the match.

[Todd Pettengill]

I said it on here a few weeks ago that Punk was gonna job out the Shield at TLC.
As a group, they're days are done. Losing to the one man squash machine = final nail.

[Joe Neglia]

Dec 17, 2013 11:50:48 GMT -5 Todd Pettengill said:

I said it on here a few weeks ago that Punk was gonna job out the Shield at TLC.
As a group, they're days are done. Losing to the one man squash machine = final nail.

I don't think we watched the same match; the one I saw certainly wasn't a squash by any means.

[Todd Pettengill]

Dec 17, 2013 12:56:43 GMT -5 Joe Neglia said:

Dec 17, 2013 11:50:48 GMT -5 Todd Pettengill said:

I said it on here a few weeks ago that Punk was gonna job out the Shield at TLC.
As a group, they're days are done. Losing to the one man squash machine = final nail.

I don't think we watched the same match; the one I saw certainly wasn't a squash by any means.

Their run as a dominating cohesive unit was squashed by Punk (and I should've credited an errant Reigns) in the match. Plus it was 3 pretty big guys losing to one. Aside from DQ, that really shouldn't happen.

[pepsitwist]

It was not a 'Super Cena' comeback to win. It was a lucky win for Punk, that much was clear. More realistic booking at least.

[Ishmeal Loves Kaseyhausen]

Rollins was put out with his finisher. Ambrose was mistakenly taken out by his Reigns' finisher. Punk then dumped him and pinned Ambrose and hightailed it out of there. That's perfectly reasonable. It's not as if he singlehanded lay dominated them.

[bestthateverdidit]

It wasn't like when Big Show destroyed the straight edge society, or when Big Show beat Kurt Angle, Reigns and Mark Jindrak in the same match.

[Kayfabe FAN don't want none]

I loved the booking at TLC, Punk is supposed to be a smart f***er so it made sense.

[angryfan]

Punk put them over beforehand, got lucky when Reigns spear won him the match, then said as much the next night. "One Man Squash Match" pretty much Horowitzed his way to victory at TLC. Reigns then redeemed himself by killing Punk dead with a spear, and it was back to The Shield guys taking one for the team (Ambrose eating the GTS leaving Punk open for Reigns).

Far as I knew, the narrative was "Oh, Reigns' eye cost them the match at TLC", the announcers said as much, Punk said "I had just accepted that I was gonna get pummeled, but I took advantage of a situation and snuck out a win". It was the babyface equivalent to a heel gloating that he cheated to win.

[Deleted]

I'd like to point out, on Raw they basically didn't at all mention that Punk won on a fluke - they played it up entirely as if he beat them straight and at no point tried to talk it up as a fluke. Plus, the implication here is that Punk could beat Bryan, Kane, and Taker by himself by extension and... Yeah, no. Punk's honestly probably worse these days about going full-on invincible than Cena is.

And even excusing the three on one thing, it still makes no sense that Punk wasn't able to beat them again with two more people backing him up if he could do it alone. It just made it look like the Usos are so worthless they dragged Punk down.

[mizerable]

I don't care who it would have been. There's almost never any reason why 3 wrestlers should lose to 1 wrestler. This isn't 3MB we're talking about. This was one of the most dominant 3 man teams ever.

[angryfan]

Dec 17, 2013 15:11:58 GMT -5 Lizuka #BLM said:

I'd like to point out, on Raw they basically didn't at all mention that Punk won on a fluke - they played it up entirely as if he beat them straight and at no point tried to talk it up as a fluke. Plus, the implication here is that Punk could beat Bryan, Kane, and Taker by himself by extension and... Yeah, no. Punk's honestly probably worse these days about going full-on invincible than Cena is.

And even excusing the three on one thing, it still makes no sense that Punk wasn't able to beat them again with two more people backing him up if he could do it alone. It just made it look like the Usos are so worthless they dragged Punk down.

It's the usual pattern, man. We win tonight, you win tomorrow, then we get you back...

With WWE it's that or "One side wins all the matches, then moves on, then we have the other side get a win a few months later out of nowhere to even things up".

Frankly, I know it was Punk/Shield at TLC, and "Punk won", but the message I'm taking from both matches is this. No matter who you are, Reigns' spear will kill you dead as fried chicken.

[shaker]

Dec 17, 2013 15:11:58 GMT -5 Lizuka #BLM said:

I'd like to point out, on Raw they basically didn't at all mention that Punk won on a fluke - they played it up entirely as if he beat them straight and at no point tried to talk it up as a fluke. Plus, the implication here is that Punk could beat Bryan, Kane, and Taker by himself by extension and... Yeah, no. Punk's honestly probably worse these days about going full-on invincible than Cena is.

And even excusing the three on one thing, it still makes no sense that Punk wasn't able to beat them again with two more people backing him up if he could do it alone. It just made it look like the Usos are so worthless they dragged Punk down.

Did we watch the same Raw? They mentioned Reigns' eye about 15 times during the match.

[Joe Neglia]

Dec 17, 2013 15:11:58 GMT -5 Lizuka #BLM said:

I'd like to point out, on Raw they basically didn't at all mention that Punk won on a fluke - they played it up entirely as if he beat them straight and at no point tried to talk it up as a fluke. Plus, the implication here is that Punk could beat Bryan, Kane, and Taker by himself by extension and... Yeah, no. Punk's honestly probably worse these days about going full-on invincible than Cena is.

And even excusing the three on one thing, it still makes no sense that Punk wasn't able to beat them again with two more people backing him up if he could do it alone. It just made it look like the Usos are so worthless they dragged Punk down.

I guess I watched a different Raw as well as a different TLC then. As the above poster noted, they played up Reigns being blinded and taking out his own guy several times.

[Bub (BLM)]

I love Punk, but I hated Sunday's finish. He'd have lost no credibility losing a handicap match to the team that beat the trio of Cena, Sheamus, and Ryback clean last year. I mean really, that's just absurd booking. Punk is more protected than The Rock ever was, which is mind-boggling.

[DZ: WF Legacy]

Punk beating them added to the slow build of The Shield breaking up. If this happened in May, it would be inexcusable. Presently, it adds to the story of them not being as much of a well-oiled machine as they once were. I liked it, though Punk could have easily lost and that would've been fine, too. If only one of the two handicap matches were to have the single winner, the Punk one was the right choice - I can suspend my belief for Bryan's size quite a bit, but him beating 3 monstrous guys (who need wins) in a handicap match is even too far-fetched for me.

[Deleted]

Ahhhhh, here we are.

Here's what I said in the TLC thread sunday:

Punk is going to win tonight.

It's going to be a decision they made to further The Shield breakup angle.

So I don't want any "CM Punk is the new Triple H" or "Shield buried" threads dagnabbit.

While you're not going THAT far, I saw this coming. He was smart, barely scraped out a win and only one because a member of the shield hit another one with what's currently being portrayed as one of the most devastating moves in the company. They mentioned it several times on Raw and Punk acknowledged he barely got through. Then Shield immediately got back through him again. They're moving toward a Shield breakup, and they have to lose matches they should of won to show they're becoming less cohesive bit by bit.

[Chip]

Dec 17, 2013 18:48:23 GMT -5 Bub (BLM) said:

I love Punk, but I hated Sunday's finish. He'd have lost no credibility losing a handicap match to the team that beat the trio of Cena, Sheamus, and Ryback clean last year. I mean really, that's just absurd booking. Punk is more protected than The Rock ever was, which is mind-boggling.

Not forgetting they beat Orton, Show and Sheamus at Mania too. The fact he beat ex-tag champs and the current US champion in a match that hasn't really served much purpose bothered me the second the ref's hand hit the mat for three. I get that they are trying to slowly have The Shield fall apart but they could do it in a better way, in a way that doesn't make them hard to take seriously when they split. There was really no reason for Punk to win here.