As noted earlier, the CM Punk “shoot” interview that he gave on WWE RAW last night was scripted by the WWE creative team and approved by WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon. In recent years, WWE has tried to “hook” the audience for the summer when TV viewing gets low — whether that was the Nexus introduction last summer, the Million Dollar Mania gimmick initiated by Vince McMahon in 2008, or Vince McMahon’s limo exploding and “dying” in June of 2007, and the Punk situation last night seems to be this summer’s hook that gets people talking.
WWE taped next week’s Fourth of July episode in Las Vegas last night following the live edition of the show. This was done in order to give the creative team the day off for the holiday. The WWE crew itself, however, will be on tour in Australia. In any event, it gives us a look at where WWE is going with the storyline. The show featured an appearance by WWE CEO and Chairman Vince McMahon, who came out and said that Punk deserved to be suspended for his actions. WWE Champion John Cena would then come out and demand that McMahon gives him a match with Punk at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view, and McMahon would deny it, saying that he can’t risk Punk taking the WWE Title to another company.
At that point, Cena said that if McMahon was not going to reinstate Punk, he would quit the company. He would go on and hand McMahon the WWE Title and said that he would “walk out” on him. Vince would take this opportunity to reinstate Punk, but said that if Punk wins at the pay-per-view, Cena would be fired.