Power Rankings: May 4, 2013
News On Punk and AJ’s current storyline
CM Punk is off bookings indefinitely. That doesn’t mean anything other than there are no plans for him right now and he’s being given time off to let his knee heal up and rest his body. He could conceivably be called back at any time.
The plans they had at WrestleMania of putting titles on Dolph Ziggler, Big E Langston and AJ was back in play this week. Which is funny because two weeks ago it looked like they were planning to split up Big E and Dolph. Something is almost certain to change since at press time the idea was to put the US Title on Big E (angle was shot on Raw to set up the Big E vs. Kofi program), but the idea was also that the gift sent to Kaitlyn was from Big E, and that seems like an angle that would split him away from the other two. Could be a long-term deal where Big E wins the title and remains a threesome with AJ and Dolph for the time being, but in the meantime he has the hots for AJ’s former best friend and main rival, and that leads to a split.
News comes from this weeks Figure Four Newsletter
Update on Punk and Rumors on a Divas Title win For AJ
Punk was at the UFC show on 4/20 in San Jose and there’s a good chance he’s going to the 4/27 show in Newark, since he’s friends with Chael Sonnen. He was there in the front row, with girlfriend Amy Dumas (Lita), basically next to Ronda Rousey, Dana White, and Cain Velasquez and Mrs. Velasquez, which tells you how much they must like him because I guarantee you there are very few pro wrestlers who are getting seats there, pretty much limited to Lesnar, because he’s a former champion, and Johnson, because White really likes him personally. Even Steve Austin and Kurt Angle would get front row in a different section. Punk is a very knowledgeable and major fan who watches all the UFC broadcasts on tape while traveling in his touring bus. Since he almost never has Saturday nights off, he just wanted to attend some shows live because once he comes back he won’t have the chance. There’s no time frame exactly on how long he’ll be out of action, but he is tentatively booked full-time starting with house shows on 6/3 and since the 6/16 PPV is from the All-State Arena in Chicago, it was virtually a lock he’d be back for that show. His right knee is a mess, but he was taking time off due to burnout anyway after WrestleMania anyway. The injury just makes his time off that much more unpleasant because his lower leg is hurting. The knee was hurt going into Mania and it got hurt worse on the table spot at Mania, and has multiple injuries, including a strained ACL and other minor tears, but doesn’t need surgery. As far as television goes, there’s no timetable. He’s supposed to be off for a while, so his walking out on 4/15 was designed to be his write-off of television for now. My over/under on when they’ll be wanting to call him to come back is only a few weeks. Hopefully the guys making the calls realize that in the long run, the longer he’s off TV, the better it is for his return. Since he can’t wrestle now, it should be easy to keep him off. The decision making may be ratings related, in the sense that if ratings fall, he’ll be called quicker. Ratings are likely to be dropping with the combination of Mania season over, no Rock, and better weather, and thus they’ll likely be in the “all hands needed on deck mode” with the idea that even hurt, he can still come in for promos.
At the 4/13 show in Las Vegas, there was an incident involving Punk and Mark Coleman. Nothing really happened bad, but Coleman at one point tried to go after him. The impression we were given was Punk was a totally innocent victim of circumstances. It’s funny, because Coleman has tremendous respect for pro wrestlers, from doing it, particularly the full-timers because he knows how tough it is and how much it takes out of your body, and the two had posed for a photo together sitting at cageside at the show. On the broadcast, Punk was shown in the crowd and Coleman wasn’t, and Coleman was furious, saying that he was a Hall of Famer in UFC and Punk was a fake pro wrestler and that should give him precedence. How Punk was at fault for this is a very different question.
Plans For AJ?
I don’t know that A.J. will get the title, but in late March, the plan was for Ziggler and A.J. to both be champions.
