[Reaper16]

My watch party seemed to think that we were still headed for Punk/Undertaker at 'Mania. That match would have been ten times more compelling if Punk still had the title. A reigning, defending WWE champion for 500+ days coming in to take on The Streak? Awesome. Keg is absolutely right here. You have to give audiences a reason to think that Undertaker could lose.

How is an audience supposed to feel threatened by CM Punk now? He hasn't won clean on a PPV in like half a year, and his whole gimmick has been "my belt means I'm better than you." Now that he doesn't have the belt how's he supposed to be compelling (I have faith he'll figure something out).

I'm mostly sad that Punk's title reign -- THE story of 2012 -- had no satisfying narrative resolution. You could argue that the man he attacked to turn heel was the one who ended the reign, and that provides some resolution, but I don't buy it. You build up Punk to have a reign of terror and it gets snuffed out. Ended T.S. Eliot style, not with a bang but a whimper.