Last Monday's conclusion to Raw was easily the best ending to the show since it's shifted to it's new three hour run. Why? It was different. It was understated. It was unique.
Sure, CM Punk turned even darker in his new role as the heel WWE champion, attacking John Cena and laying him out for Alberto Del Rio to defeat. Sure, he dropped Cena face-first on a car. That's typical wrestling craziness.
But, the aftermath is what made the moment work so well. We didn't see Punk, the zealot heel, screaming and ranting and raving. Instead, he knelt down and said, "Respect." He held his title high and he stepped inside a car.
The car didn't peel out at 88 mph as if it was trying to travel back to 1985, but instead just rolled forward. Ever so slowly, it moved along, with it's driver Paul Heyman just looking down at Cena.
No maniacal laughter. No trash talking. No nutty statements. Just a serious, condescending Heyman looking down at the friend to all children, moving forward with his new apparent charge.
With dramatic silence, The dream team is born. Not with a big bang - that's the stereotypical pro wrestling way. This was the exact opposite and that's why it worked.
Several months ago, I wrote a long piece about how WWE lacked any true villains that scared fans, that committed diabolical acts, that truly were bereft of all good traits. They were just total, utter, absolute trash.
All great champions, all great heroes need that path to travel and that journey to make. They need something to overcome. If WWE plays their cards right, they have come across the building blocks of that something - the dream team.
No one reading this needs to be reacquainted with the character traits or resume of Paul Heyman. In the last several months, he's been unparalleled as a talker for the company, to the point that one has to wonder if WWE regrets not trying to offer an olive branch much sooner. He added a great dimension to the HHH-Lesnar rivalry and now, he can use his traits to add another dimension to CM Punk's turn towards the dark side.
It's not that Punk needs the help, either. In many ways, I see this pairing as close to the potential of Heyman working with Rick Rude in WCW in the 1990s. Rude never needed a manager. He could work. He could talk. He could get heat. But, when he had someone just as good working with him - Heyman, Percy Pringle, Madusa - it magnified his assets and made him a hotter heel.
I see Punk the same way. He can talk and work and knows how to manipulate the crowd but tossing Heyman into that mix as well....that creates a unique caustic chemistry the likes of which WWE hasn't had since, well, Vince McMahon was on top as a the top heel in the company.
Punk turns his back on the fans because they don't respect him as the champion. As a storyline, it's been a little iffy, even though his delivery and performance, as usual, is spot on. If it's revealed that Heyman (Remember the "I'm a Paul Heyman guy" line from his breakout promo in 2011?) had polluted his mind, seeding him with resentment and breeding seething anger since Heyman has returned.....well, that's a little more plausible.
Punk could easily be Anakin Skywalker, turned to the dark side and unleashed as Darth Vader with Paul Heyman as the Emperor pulling the strings.
In any event, the reality is that an unhinged team of Heyman and Punk will draw money. All WWE has to do is let them do what they do best. That's going to be quite the accomplishment to pull off in 2012 PG WWE but if they can get it done (and if anyone is slick enough to pull that off, it's these too), we'll see two things accomplished. They will get themselves over as top heels for a company that needs HEELS, not clumsy villains the kid from Home Alone can outsmart. Then, once they do, they can get over the babyfaces. Everyone makes money and everyone goes on to the next stage.
It seems so simple and it should be. Whether that actually happens or not, remains to be seen. But, this having the chance to even happen has been a long time coming.
Heyman and Punk go way back to Punk's earliest days in WWE developmental. Coming in off a legitimate series of classic bouts and angles in Ring of Honor, Punk had everything working against him there. He was too big for his britches. He didn't look like a wrestler. He carried himself like a star. But, for every person that worked for WWE that knocked him (the same types that now fawn over him backstage, by the way), Heyman was always his number one supporter.
After all, how in the hell do you think Punk made it all the way to the main roster, unscathed, with no character or name changes in an era where being a Flair, a Hennig and a Guerrero doesn't mean you get to keep those names in WWE? Heyman argued him through and he argued him through all the way to the end of his 2006 run, where he wanted Punk to choke out Big Show and shock the world at the forgettable December to Dismember.
That didn't happen. Punk lost. Heyman quit. ECW died. Punk overachieved. Heyman returned. Time passed. Wounds healed.
The one thing that didn't was that friendship and that partnership. It's not hard to guess that Heyman was likely counseling Punk (as he has others) on their careers and choices they could make. We've heard from day one of Heyman's return that he and Punk wanted to do something together and now they have that chance.
CM Punk has talked about bringing changes to WWE for a little over a year, with the asterisk in the air being that they would take time to take hold. We've seen some signs of those changes with talents that WWE signed to developmental, like the former Chris Hero.
But, what if those changes involved bringing back one of the factors that made WWF so great in the past - the relationship between diabolical heel and colorful mouthpiece and putting a new spin on it for today's younger audience? What if the changes included getting Heyman back into the fold to work with his former political rivals. What does an older, perhaps wiser Heyman have to give?
It sure sounds to me like the guy who was once being championed might be the guy championing Heyman.
After all, he's a "Paul Heyman guy."
The fact that he is might be something we all benefit from.
Stay tuned, Dream Teamers. Stay tuned.