The Smackers Thread

[burchybabi]

On 6/18/2025 at 2:54 PM, mim731 said:

Seeing other reports suggesting July 4th now. The sooner the better.  

Just thinking is this maybe only a one off until an August change as SmackDown is being taped before RAW that week because of the 4th July holiday so reducing the time would help fit everything into a more palatable duration for the live audience.. hope not, as you say the soon the better

[NeverYield]

Loved that promo from Cena, best thing he's done in a while. 

[LaGoosh]

The Cena promo is going to get a lot of talk and understandably so. It was really weird.

John Cena, the heel, absolutely destroyed the babyface challenger and not just got huge cheers but embraced them. Isn't a heels job to get heat and get the babyface over?

CM Punk spent literally 10 minutes holding his belly on a Slim Jim table, holding his belly grimacing like he had diarrhoea. He looked like an absolute berk.

Cena doing his best "fine speech" type of promo where he highlights everything that is stupid, shit and boring about his opponent. How does that help build excitement for the match? "Five promo moves of doom" was particularly brutal. Saying the quiet part out loud. Absolute character assassination and I don't see how that's helpful.

I don't know how CM Punk can rebut any of this without admitting he's a hypocritical bullshit artist. And I don't really think that's what wrestling feuds should be about. 

This story feels like a mess when it should be an easy one. How does the babyface prove he's not a hypocrit like the heel claims while also still wrestling in Saudi Arabia without openly saying it’s a corrupt blood money sports washing show? 

 

[d-d-d-dAz]

Mother fudging.

I mean, it was alright. It was quite novel, and it was well delivered. Next to the promo battle in London, it probably was the best thing Heel Cena has done... but that's not necessarily a massive compliment.

It was still cringingly meta, in front of an audience that by and large doesn't seem to care about this stuff. I think most of them, like me, are trying to work out what Claudio, Dolph and Cardona have to do with any of this.

My main takeaway is that the Triple H era really is fast forwarding to the end of his run if this is anything to go by. His trolling of Punk has gone from 0-60 real fast.

Cena's goofy wave at the camera and 'hey we're breaking the fourth wall' is what I'm going to think about every time anyone does a rubbish meta promo now.

 

Edited June 21, 2025 by d-d-d-dAz

[FLips]

He’s got shit delivery and it didn’t help build a match at all, but it didn’t really matter because he made CM Punk look like a dickhead and I’m all for that.

One of the most hypocritical, troublesome moaners of all time made to lay in a Slim Jim table and eat shit for 15 minutes while everything he’s spent the last two decades building gets exposed as nothing but tweets and edgy fourth wall breaks. You would think this is building to heel Punk if anything because his stock as a face just plummetted.

Also look at this dweeb.

 

Edited June 21, 2025 by FLips

[Supremo]

Really funny that this is the same guy who asked Jack Perry why he insisted on doing this dumb internet shit on TV.

He’s so many layers deep into this Meta Wank Inception that I can no longer keep track of what’s going on, who this is for or what it’s even attempting to achieve. It’s enough to give you a migraine. Like bad A.I.

“Write me an attempt at inverting the infamous Pipe Bomb Promo, with Cena as the heel and Punk as the babyface, but make sure Punk is made to look like a complete dickhead, both his shoot and kayfabe characters assassinated throughout, with Cena simultaneously mocking his hypocrisy, and playing up to the increasing cheers of the crowd.”

A hot mess. I can’t figure out where the incompetency ends and the spite starts. Has everyone lost their mind? Has Hunter completely thrown the towel in and is now only concerned with seeing if he can make Punk snap?

All I’m saying is that if I knew Brian Gerwirtz was going to steal my job, my days were numbered, and I held a long-standing grudge against CM Punk? I couldn’t have scripted it better. Him lying on top of a Slim Jim advertisement for ten minutes as he got ripped to shreds. It was like a fucking humiliation ritual!

The only way I think you could potentially save the Punk character at this point is if he was to beat Cena for the belt, but that’s obviously not happening. The way we’re repeating history, we all know who’s costing Punk the match in Saudi.

Edited June 21, 2025 by Supremo

[digforvictory]

As others have said it really is an amazing segment to watch.

The heel verbally eviscerating the babyface over what an insincere sellout and hypocrite he is , being 100% completely correct, the fans cheering for the heel in agreement and then the heel acknowledging and welcoming those cheers.  A total babyface killing segment, Punk was made to look like an absolute dickhead. I loved it.

In terms of building the babyface up for a WWE title match it was a disaster but in terms of humiliating CM Punk it went down a storm and I'm starting to think that is what matters most for HHH.

Triple H must now be thinking what else can we get Punk to do that makes him look awful? What's next on the humilation tour? If Punk was willing to do this, he's willing to do anything.

Edited June 21, 2025 by digforvictory

[WyattSheepMask]

Punk will be wishing for another end of show brawl with Seth Rollins rather than taking another pasting like that. Great stuff 

[d-d-d-dAz]

I do worry for his health. He's prone to big performative gestures when his back is against the wall. I'm concerned he's going to come out in Saudi wearing a t-shirt that'll get him killed and cause an international incident.

[LaGoosh]

The problem with those Cena burial promos is that he's bulletproof. There's nothing anyone has ever been able to fire back at him that he can't brush off. Everything has already been  said against him and he doesn't care. Cena has publicly exposed him, the fans cheered it and there's nowhere for Punk to go.

All of this is a far cry from that dog collar match with MJF where he looked on top of the world. Finally found his place to be 100% himself creatively, totally accepted by the audience and able to tell the stories he wanted. Now he's a fucking mug on a Slim Jim table on the way to Saudi Arabia for the MAGA brigade. It's a shame.

Edited June 21, 2025 by LaGoosh

[Supremo]

Exactly two years ago today, this was the promo building towards a CM Punk match. How far we’ve (he’s) fallen.

 "Oh Punk nooo... why do you want me to Go To Sleep so bad, huh? I'm not tired. I'm fully rested. I got my eight hours!"

[NeverYield]

Cena has absolute fried Punk, the more I watch it the better it gets.

[TheScarlettChad]

Punk will definitely be quitting at some point if this keeps up. His ego can't handle it. 

[NeverYield]

A George Foreman like KO shot to his ego 

[ReturnOfTheMack]

I admit that its the most I've been interested in WWE in years - trying to work out where they go with this without Punk looking even worse, both as a character and as an actual human being.