Have you opened Wrestling Twitter in the last week? If so, you’ve probably seen a barrage of rumors about WWE allegedly wanting a match between CM Punk and Stone Cold Steve Austin at WrestleMania. If you’ve seen those, you’ve probably also seen a horde of wrestling fans celebrating like we’re getting Bret Hart and Kurt Angle squaring off in their primes, but I don’t get why they’re so excited at all. In fact, I think CM Punk and Stone Cold Steve Austin fighting at WrestleMania 40 is one of the worst ideas I’ve ever heard, and I’m baffled other people don’t feel the same way I do. Let’s talk this out.
Before we get into my personal views though, let’s back up and talk about how we got here. CM Punk made a surprise return to WWE last weekend at Survivor Series in what has to be a top 100 all-time WWE moment. I cover wrestling for a living and had no idea it was happening. I felt like a little kid again, and clearly, millions of other people did too, as his return set all kinds of wrestling-related social media records. The next few days was a flood of stories and videos about Seth Rollins allegedly not being happy about his return, and the general consensus become almost immediately that we’d see Punk and Rollins in the Main Event of Night 1 at WrestleMania 40.
But not so fast. Then we started hearing rumors that WWE was actually planning to have Punk vs Rollins at The Royal Rumble in January and instead, some big voices were pushing for CM Punk and Stone Cold Steve Austin to be the WrestleMania Night 1 Main Event. The typically reputable Fightful confirmed those whispers were happening, though Dave Meltzer said those talks have not gotten to Stone Cold yet. Regardless, there are now countless WWE fans rooting for the match to happen. And I don’t get it. At all.
I’ll be the first to say I loved Stone Cold Steve Austin and Kevin Owens at WrestleMania 38. That entire segment and match were an absolute blast, and it was one of my favorite things I watched that entire ‘Mania weekend. I’d love to see Austin come back, and I think CM Punk would be an ideal opponent for him. If Austin agreed to do a couple of Raw episodes prior to the show, those promo wars would be fantastic. Putting these two together is a great idea and would be fantastic for business… at some point in the future.
But CM Punk has the potential to have a world title run right now. He is quite possibly the most over superstar in the entire company at this moment, while simultaneously being hated by another healthy segment of fans. If you keep Seth Rollins as a babyface and let CM Punk continue to be himself, WWE has the potential to create a babyface vs babyface Ultimate Warrior vs Hulk Hogan style main event at ‘Mania. The company guy who stayed and persevered, through numerous creative directions and down periods in the business versus the guy who left, trashed everyone and came back. It would be the biggest moment of either of their careers and potentially turn both into bigger stars. Who wins would have major ramifications for WWE for months or even years to come.
CM Punk and Stone Cold Steve Austin is a sideshow. It’s a glitzy exhibition that would be entirely engineered to create one fun, standalone experience. Steve Austin is not returning full-time to WWE. A win from CM Punk would do nothing to bring him closer to a major title run, and a loss would put him further away from a title run, given Austin is nearly 60. It would also do nothing to turn Seth Rollins or anyone else into bigger stars. It would simply exist for its own sake.
Popularity can be fleeting in wrestling. Even the all-time greats ebb and flow in terms of how much the crowd cares at any given moment. CM Punk is having a moment right now. He has the chance to become the biggest star in the entire industry and carry WWE into its next chapter. He also has a chance to help elevate Seth Rollins and turn The World Heavyweight Championship into something actually on par with The WWE Universal Championship. I get the appeal of Austin and Punk, I really do. But Punk and Rollins is what’s right for the future of the business, and WWE would be fools to flush that in favor of a one-off match with zero stakes.
