Money in the Bank had a lot of really poignant moments. A lot of them came between the frame of time between when Vince McMahon and John Laurinaitis entered the main arena and when the pay-per-view went off the air. Many people are looking at the end of the event are seeing this as a beginning of a new era in WWE. Those people have merit in their arguments, especially in light of the events that are unfolding between our eyes1.
However, there’s another way to look at the events, and that is as a resolution. I know, I just got done telling you that this was among the first salvos in a new direction for WWE and for the Punk character himself. The thing is that a good story, or at least a good long-term story (think about WWE as you’d think about, say, Lord of the Rings for the sake of this argument), has several arcs that go to completion within the greater flow of the major story. Looking at it from that perspective, Punk’s ending at Money in the Bank was the perfect ending to the first part of his WWE career, like his Fellowship.
Punk started out on the ECW brand and did everything he needed to do there. He won Money in the Bank twice and the World Heavyweight Championship three times. He became a big star despite maybe not getting optimal faith from the front office in his mind. Instead of getting shots at titles or getting a run at Cena on something more than a throwaway match here or there, he was offered up as Big Show’s plaything or a baby-sitter for the husband of a pop star. He wanted to prove himself, and the climax to that was his first ground-breaking promo on Raw on June 27. It was the pot boiling over, the moment when the hero realized he needed to take drastic action.
And as the falling action played out, we all wondered whether his plan would work. Traditionally, a man like he would be the villain, but to deem him as such would be to discount his message. Like Robin Hood, he was using nefarious means to bring happiness to the masses. He was a voice to the voiceless, and for that, we wanted to see him strip the WWE of one of its two richest prizes. To that end, we were rewarded richly with a satisfying conclusion.
Much in the same way that a movie in a series needs to have its own defined arc within the greater structure of the entire scope, wrestling events need to have catharsis, resolution, something to send the crowd home happy. When wrestling is good, it can provide both storyline advancement as well as a temporary resolution. Admittedly, it can be very hard for a wrestling company to do that when it has to provide 65 or so different instances of first-run programming a year, but when this is done well, they do need to be commended, just as some among us, myself included sometimes, are quick to jump on them for botching it.
That’s one of the reasons why Money in the Bank was such a great event. Not only did we see something budding and unfolding before our very eyes, but we also saw CM Punk get his rightful reward, his resolution, his happy ending so to speak. As the sequels come out in the future, we’ll get our fix of him, but for now, if we never watched another moment of wrestling again, we can be satisfied with the end of the movie, with CM Punk, the voice for the voiceless, sitting on his couch, defending his championship against Piston Honda and enjoying the spoils of a campaign well-executed.
1 - Refer to this video for the latest
TH writes The Wrestling Blog and broadcasts The Wrestling Podcast. You can find him on Twitter, or at various other spots around the Internet. He also loves Chikara, and quite frankly, thinks you should too.
Edited by Jason Mann
