CM Punk vs Stone Cold needs to happen at WrestleMania 30

The match that every wrestling fan has wanted to see for WrestleMania is hands down the dream match of CM Punk vs Stone Cold Steve Austin. This match is truly the biggest dream match that we have not seen yet. Just the idea of it had fans excited when Punk and Austin had a backstage segment between each other in June 2011, before Punk cut that pipebomb promo. This journey of Austin vs Punk has been one that dates back to the 900th episode of RAW with Punk teasing fans with the sound of Austin’s theme music and mocking him.

From that moment, there was a feeling of “what if……”, but it seemed so far fetched because Austin had never expressed any interest in coming back for one more match, and there was no opponent that would excite the fans enough to make it work. Until Punk cut that pipebomb promo wearing the Austin T-Shirt, which got the fans going crazy thinking and wondering what the meaning was. From there, Austin started to make note that if he EVER came back to wrestle, the only match he would want to wrestle is with Punk. At that moment, you could see gears spinning, and some of us speculated that Austin vs Punk would occur at WrestleMania 28, and Punk vs Austin soon slipped over to Twitter with back and forth jabs. Similar to how Rock and Cena were using Twitter to further a feud, it felt like Punk and Austin were going back and forth to build interest for something. WrestleMania 28 came, and Punk took on Jericho in a great match, gaining his first singles win at WrestleMania. The next night, Punk tweeted Austin with a simple message “29, son”, which easily was meant to be a thinly veiled challenge to Austin for WrestleMania 29.

With a challenge laid down for WrestleMania 29 by Punk, Austin responds with his classic cop out answer of “if the stars align and we can make it work, I’m for it”. What stars did Austin refer to? Money? It couldn’t have been a big deal money wise, as Vince paid Rock and Lesnar big money to come back, and I’m sure for Austin, he would open the checkbook. Right opponent? Austin said himself he only wants to fight Punk. Right atmosphere? 80,000 people at WrestleMania. Check. What other stars needed to be aligned for the match to happen? There were none. Austin just needed an excuse to keep fans’ appetites for this match well and alive, and keep people speculating about it with attention on him despite his presence not being felt on WWE TV. Austin missed RAW 1000, which was odd, and then proclaimed he had a knee injury and surgery, and wasn’t fully healed. A lot of fans, myself included, thought that was random, but understandable. We still held hope that WM29 would be Austin vs Punk. Punk even turned heel on RAW 1000, and Austin himself said he would only want to do the match if Punk was heel. Punk turned heel, seemingly to sweeten the pot even more for Austin to return and “align the stars” like Steve has spoken about. At SummerSlam 2012, Austin and Punk did a sit down interview for WWE 13 at Axxess, in which Punk and Austin went back and forth in an amazing promo with JR.

Right after this interview with Austin and Punk, it seemed as if Austin was preparing himself for WM29, as he spoke about rehabbing his knee by December and kicking Punk’s ass for 25 to 30 minutes in a couple of different interviews around this time. Punk even went so far to start throwing shots on WWE TV during September and October(awfully close to WrestleMania season) 2012, and Austin even made a video on YouTube that gave off the impression that we’d see him soon to address Punk face to face. Fast forward to January 14, 2013, RAW’s 20th Anniversary show in TEXAS, the home of Stone Cold Steve Austin. So many fans were speculating that Austin and Punk were set to have a segment to build to WrestleMania 29 and their match, especially with Austin being healthy and having rehabbed his knee. The episode came and went without any sign of Austin. It was later addressed that Austin was in Vegas for a hunting show. So, the company that gave him the ability to take these bookings and make the movies he makes can’t even get the biggest draw in wrestling history to miss a hunting show to be at the 20th Anniversary show? Especially when he missed RAW 1000? Nothing about that made sense regardless of Austin’s disclaimers AFTER the fact he misses a show. Could there be an underlying issue at hand?

One could say that WWE didn’t properly reach out to Austin, and I would believe that. Triple H has always seemed to have an issue with Austin for years, and now that he’s in charge of talent relations for the most part, he could very well be the main thing holding up the company and possibly this dream match. Triple H gave contracts to guys like Jericho, RVD, and other part time guys, but the huge contracts like Rock and Brock seem to have come straight from Vince. That speaks volumes. Wrestlers like Brock and Rock are bigger names than Triple H, as is Austin. Triple H, was known NOT to be a fan of either Jericho or RVD, so one could even go as far to say he took pride in signing those two to their part time contracts because of the fact that Triple H was the one in power there(sort of like how Vince probably took solace in signing Hogan again in 2002, after their storied battle, or how Vince enjoyed buying out WCW and employing WCW wrestlers). This is all just speculation of course, but it’s very possible. Austin and Triple H have reportedly had an up and down personal relationship with each other over the years and with Triple H in charge on the day to day, could that be a factor? Could Triple H be looking at Austin and thinking “if he comes back, the spotlight wouldn’t be on me as much for WrestleMania?”. Maybe Triple H doesn’t personally want to see Austin vs Punk, so he hasn’t pursued it as effectively as he should, despite it being the BIGGEST match left and what’s best for business? Punk had an interview about Austin recently and even said “I think Austin will come back. Whether or not, he faces me is another story”, which also brings up the fact that WWE pitched a match of Austin vs Triple H at Wrestlemania 30, which NO ONE wanted to see. Think about it: HHH might have reached out to Austin and pitched this idea to help piggyback off the buzz and attention that Austin’s return would get. Maybe Austin realized at some point that WWE didn’t see the vision that he did and pitched him working with HHH or even Cena, which Austin has said he didn’t want to do. Austin claimed he wanted Punk.

Austin missed WrestleMania 29. He wasn’t a part of the build-up, never made any appearances. He did his podcast, didn’t address wrestling again much at all, and even put out disclaimer tweets saying “send in your questions, but don’t ask anything about me wrestling again or WrestleMania 30?, which made me confused. Austin, what the fuck else would we care about in your life besides WrestleMania 30 or you wrestling again? Should we care about your cameo in “Grown Ups 2?? Should we care about “Redneck Island”? Should we care about your straight to DVD movies? What else do you THINK your FANS want to ask you about that’s important? This is where I start to question Austin’s whole motive about mentioning a comeback. A lot of attention turned to Austin again when all the rumors and speculation about him vs Punk started. Did Austin use that speculation and rumors to help fuel his own endeavors a little more? Put the spotlight on himself more? The Rock came back and had a lot of fanfare during this 3 year period that Austin vs Punk has been rumored, did Austin just want to steal some of that attention anyway? Or is Austin really that indecisive about getting into the ring for a match? According to him, if he really wanted to, he could wrestle another 2 years, as his injuries are mostly all healed up. Back in December 2012, Austin said that if he came back, he would need 3 months to train to get back into ring shape. He repeated this statement in February 2013 as well. So, if a man is fully healthy enough to wrestle again, can score a big payday, and wrestle the only guy he wants to, and has a time table for how long it would take him to get back into ring shape, what’s stopping him?

Austin did a set of interviews were he spoke out and almost seemed to be BEGGING WWE to offer him a deal for a match at WrestleMania 30. This was July-August 2013 when he did those interviews, and he got quiet for about two weeks on the subject until he randomly showed up at SummerSlam and Axxess. Rumors persist that Austin was backstage at SummerSlam, and he appeared to do media at some of the WWE Axxess events. It was the first time we had saw Austin back in any WWE related venture in over a year, and he even followed up with a sit down interview with WWE.com talking about the Daniel Bryan/Triple H storyline as well. Austin did an interview once again repeating the time table of 3 months it would take for him to get into ring shape, which begs the question….. December 2012 through September 2013 is a 9 month time period, so why the hell wasn’t Austin working out for 3 months during this period? Why mention the time period needed if you aren’t putting in the work to make the match happen? Why flap your gums about a match that you know ALL YOUR FANS want to see, only to find a way to come up with an excuse on why it might not happen? Austin said the chances are pretty damn slim that he would do the match recently, which considering all the things and the long road put forth, makes little sense. Austin spoke about wondering “what’s next” after coming back for one match, which is illogical, because the point of coming back for that one match is to come back FOR ONE MATCH. There is no “what’s next”. Getting into the ring with the best in the business of this generation, in a main event, on the biggest WrestleMania of all time? Why would there need to be a “what’s next?”

WWE, in recent memory, have gone on record to say that they want to keep things as secret as possible and it seems as though they are trying to work the dirt sheets with tons of conflicting reports and interviews. Case in point, no one knows The Rock’s status for WrestleMania 30 on the dirt sheet circuit, but I’ll guarantee you Vince has The Rock’s word for WrestleMania 30, as Rock has even gone on to say he would be open to doing more matches in the future in recent interviews. Could the WWE be working everyone? Austin put out a statement in his interviews challenging WWE to put a real offer on the table for him, then a month later he’s doing

media and mini work for WWE, then a month later he’s saying he likely won’t wrestle again. Jim Ross, one of Austin’s best friends in the business, supposedly retires, and is a guest on Austin’s podcast just a week or so afterwards. JR, did a set of Austin/Punk comparisons in one of his most recent blogs, which got my gears spinning just a little. What if, WWE reached out to Austin after his interview, offered him a big contract for WrestleMania 30, and want to make it as big as possible, while still keeping the element of surprise there. JR “retiring” was something that made me think, and Austin’s recent interview also gave me the idea that we’re being worked. Austin appearing out of nowhere(say at the Royal Rumble), and causing Punk to be eliminated, or having them eliminate each other in the Rumble would give us a basis and a motive for the match. Austin and Punk could both be face/tweeners and it could just be motivated by both of their desires to be the absolute best at what they do. To make the match even bigger, it could be announced ahead of WrestleMania 30 that JR is coming out of “retirement” to call his last match ever, which would be Punk vs Austin. Austin making a surprise return at the Rumble would be unexpected, create a huge buzz to start the Road to WrestleMania, and with Punk searching for that elusive WrestleMania main event match, you basically create a perfect scenario for everyone involved: Austin gets a huge return payday, a main event match at the biggest WrestleMania ever against the only guy who got him interested in coming back in the first place. Punk gets his first ever WrestleMania main event against one of his biggest influences in the business and his ultimate dream match. The fans could get the one match we’ve been waiting for and a huge spectacle. The scenario, the draw, the money, the feud could all be epic TV and give everyone something to remember forever.

If the match never happens and WrestleMania 30 comes and goes, Austin will have to take another bruise to his name and legacy a bit. Granted, he is and always will be one of the greatest ever to lace up the boots, for a guy who already has a walkout on his resume, wouldn’t teasing a match for 3 years, only to back out on it, despite the “stars aligning” like he kept mentioning, make him look just a little bad? He’s a grown man, sure, and can do what he chooses, but if that’s the case, why tease the fans? Why keep mentioning it? Why still do interviews AND do an interview practically begging for WWE to offer a serious deal only to change your tone a month or so later? That doesn’t seem stable or make any sense, unless there’s more to it.

The beauty of this? We’ll have to wait until WrestleMania time to truly find out. Let’s be honest however, Punk has faced The Undertaker, Jericho, Rock, Lesnar already, Triple H, Bryan, Ziggler, etc…. there is only ONE name for him at the BIGGEST WrestleMania of all time. That’s Austin. Austin would be out of his mind to pass up the opportunity to make history, break records, and give the fans one last moment while giving HIMSELF one last moment to remember. Here’s to WrestleMania 30. Austin vs Punk. We can only hope.