Punk, Paul Bearer and the Streak.

I've been a wrestling fan for over two decades now. I've watched WWE, WCW, ECW, TNA, some RoH, some Japanese stuff, and even some British wrestling before. I've seen Triple H shag a corpse, Mae Young give birth to a hand, Randy Orton tell Rey that Eddie has gone to Hell, Kurt Angle threaten to kidnap Sharmell and 'have his way' with her, Taker be choked out by a terrorist days after the 7/7 bombings... and barely batted an eyelid at any of it.

And yet Punk on Raw this week has made me feel incredibly uncomfortable.

The line 'Paul Bearer's streak of waking up every morning has come to an end' is one of the dumbest things I've ever heard. To then follow it up with Heyman dressed up as Bearer, then Punk opening the urn and pouring ashes over the Undertaker just took things a step too far. Some of the greatest wrestling angles have been based on true events, but this was just wrong. At the end of the day, a man has died, and using this as a basis for Punk 'getting into Taker's head' is not something I like at all.

I know it seems odd that Eddie's exploitation didn't bother me, but there was an element of reality in what Orton said about him - Eddie was a noted drug-taker, had claimed to have fathered Rey's son on TV, so I could believe some of what Orton said; and considering how much WWE had used Eddie's death, by that point I was kinda immune to it.

However, Paul Bearer is a different story. WWE apparently got permission of his sons to carry out the storyline, but I'd love to know how much of it they told them - if they knew that Punk would be pouring ashes over the Undertaker, would they really have approved it? And what about Taker? He's supposed to be the leader of the locker-room, how much of this is he happy with?

To me, Punk is merely the king of cheap heat. Certainly not the best in the world at all.

Supposedly WWE go over each week with the family about what they're doing and the family have okay'd everything so far, but they said the actions of monday's Raw were not how they imagined the scenes at all.

You'd have to imagine though along with the family approving it that Taker would also have to give his approval to the actions as well.

Punk can get genuine heat, but they're just exploiting a situation that had convenient timing, in many ways I wish they had gone for Punk's crusade for respect for Mania anyway.

hodge13 wrote:

Supposedly WWE go over each week with the family about what they're doing and the family have okay'd everything so far, but they said the actions of monday's Raw were not how they imagined the scenes at all.

Any suggestions for how WWE could explain 'we want to pour ashes over the Undertaker whilst Paul Heyman is dressed as your father' could be sold to the family in any way that might make it acceptable to anyone? I reckon the family may have ok-ed everything, but now there's a backlash against it, the family is starting to think 'Shit, maybe this isn't the right thing to do...'

It's also crossed my mind more than once that Bearer's death may be a work - the timing of it all seems just too perfect, he's risen from the dead before - perhaps I've been a wrestling fan too long now!

This week was too much, gaining a little heat from it was fine. Also annoying as Punk has proved he can get heat without going this route.

This is what was posted this morning:

"Hey. I woke up in time to watch the tail end of the show. What you explained would happen happened. Which is fine. Just it was a little difficult to watch it play out. I put a message on Facebook last night saying that we approved it but it wasn't what I envisioned. That I didn't have anything to say. Well woke up this morning and that quote is being used all over 'media outlets.' For the record. I was fine w(ith) it. Was hard to watch but y'all are professionals and I trust."

Grecian wrote:

It's also crossed my mind more than once that Bearer's death may be a work - the timing of it all seems just too perfect, he's risen from the dead before - perhaps I've been a wrestling fan too long now!

I'm exactly the same as you. It wouldnt suprise me at all if he 'risen from the dead' at Wrestlemania. I also think this is the only way this storyline was going places as I couldnt see the 'respect' route working.

There's no way WWE would 'fake' Paul Bearer's death because the outcry when the whole thing came out would be worse than the kind of criticism they're getting now. So (much as I can't believe I'm saying this) it's actually better that they're exploiting a real death than a fake one.

Having said that, the whole thing does feel in poor taste. Were they really so unsure about their original storyline that they felt they had to bring Paul Bearer's death into it? At least with Eddie, they left it a few weeks before using his death in storylines. With Bearer's, they couldn't even wait a week.

On the bright side, Taker will almost certainly be gone again after Mania so this whole storyline should go with him. The one involving Eddie's death went on for months on end and didn't do anyone any good at all.