Money in the Bank buyrate in

[ColinBollocks]

The one thing Punk has going for him is he is shifting a lot of merch. It's the same thing that has kept John Cena in a strong position, despite numbers falling in other areas.

 

Meltzer did sum it up nicely by saying Punk is a semi-hot act in a stale/cold product. Really WWE should have done the Punk stuff when they had The Rock audience. Instead they went back into default mode.

[Dirty Eddie]

Yeah, a definite good point. WCW fans were surely keeping their eyes on WWF in some sense, so when business picked up, all they had to do was turn over.

 

I still think word of mouth will play a part though, but only if the better quality of shows keep rolling out. I have friends that will ask "was RAW work watching this week" and the normal answer of "No, not really" is slowly moving towards"well, the opening and last segments were great. Probably worth a watch".

 

Part of the problem when Rock last came back was that the rest of the product was still pretty poor, giving little incentive to keep watching after it was clear he was off again for 6 months. It would be nice if they kept rolling with these good shows and then maybe if those Rock fans tune back in during the build-up to Mania, the rest of the product will be of a higher standard and some may stick around. Wishful thinking, perhaps.

[Shane O' Mac Version 2]

The big question is, can Punk remain hot, or can WWE keep him hot, all the way through to Survivor Series when the Rock does return? No doubt the hype will be off the charts for the Rock making his Road to Wrestlemania for the big return match, if casuals are given the opportunity to latch onto Punk, who by November should be well into a HHH feud, it could make this 'rasslin thing huge again.