CM Punk taking over the Nexus and booting out Wade Barrett makes sense when one remembers CM Punk was one of the Nexus's original targets but everyone ignored that to whine about how they attack John Cena and Bryan Danielson choked Justin Roberts with a tie. And what does he do with the New Nexus? Send them after John Cena!
It also ties into how Punk admitted to not giving a shit about the New Nexus after they were all taken out by Randy Orton. Of course he's not gonna care about the stable that viciously targeted him all those months ago as collateral for their attack on Cena. He just saw an opportunity to use them for his own agenda after Barrett got temporarily taken out by Cena.
Even as a face/Anti-Hero, Punk's been calling himself the "Best in the World" for over a year. Of course his Awesome Ego would go to his head and turn him heel eventually.
A rather Genre Blind moment has happened in his recent feud with John Cena. He decided to try to get to Cena by insulting his Broken Base. Seems he forgot that just last year Cena personally led the crowd in the traditional "Let's go Cena!/Cena sucks!" chant and actively embraces his Broken Base.
It less likely Genre Blindness and more like he forgot, or honestly thought it would get to Cena.
Yet another Genre Blind moment occurred when Punk came out to confront Cena, who was sporting a sling after having elbow surgery. Punk gave Cena a chance to leave the ring before he would further injure him. After having counted to five, Punk turns around only to find Cena wielding a pipe, which he then uses to sock Punk in the stomach. Guess Punk forgot that Cena is the epitome of Determinator and isn't about to back down from a fight, regardless of his condition.
At Night of Champions 2011 he attacked Triple H after the water spit part of his entrance.
At Hell In A Cell 2011 when Cena went for the signature taunt before his Five-Knuckle Shuffle, Punk kicked him in the face.
At the 11/28/11 Raw, during Del Rio's rematch for the WWE Championship, a stipulation was added to the match; unlike most championship matches, if Punk was disqualified, then he would lose the championship. Del Rio then tried to use this to his advantage by distracting the ref by undoing a turnbuckle. While the ref has his back turned, trying to fix the exposed turnbuckle, Del Rio then struck a chair against the ground and tossed it to Punk. However, Punk caught the chair, tossed it back to Del Rio, and hit the ground like a ton of bricks while clutching his head.
A small in-ring example, albeit important, is when Punk's opponent shoots their arm and shoulder up to break a pin count. Emphatic? Yes, but it makes it much easier for Punk to cinch in the arm for the Anaconda Vice. It's how he beat Del Rio for the WWE Title at Survivor Series 2011.
On the September 2nd, 2013 episode of Raw, we find out that Triple H approved the match between CM Punk vs Curtis Axel and Paul Heyman. Why? Punk's obsession with Paul Heyman borders on tunnel vision. He is ignoring everything else that is going on in the company. Think about it: Triple H wants Punk's focus to be on Paul Heyman. Remember Punk's promo on Raw that kick-started the Summer of Punk? Imagine if Punk started to focus on what was happening to Daniel Bryan? And unlike Bryan, Punk is a proven draw and clout comparable to Cena and Orton — if anyone could cause trouble for The Authority, it'd be him.
For that matter, this extends to Heyman as well. Earlier into this storyline, Triple H had granted Punk a match with Axel where if Punk won, he'd get Heyman to himself. Triple H commented along the lines of "whether Heyman gets to weasel out of this or gets what's coming to him, I win." That's when it clicked. Not only regarding Punk via the Summer of Punk, but also Heyman who had previously been feuding with Triple H via Brock Lesnar and had a long history of antagonizing Vince McMahon. Triple H really doesn't like either one of them, as they've both been habitual thorns in the McMahon family's side; however, with Heyman's betrayal of Punk conveniently putting the two at each other's throats, they're both completely distracted from being the HUGE spanners in the works that they could be to the current regime. Thus, he's letting them both proceed with business as usual and focus on destroying one another, both to keep them out of his way and just for the kicks.
Bret Hart was the referee in the match he wore pink trunks as a tribute to Randy Savage.
In his big promo, he talked about not being invited on Conan or on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. The problem is that his walking out on the company guaranteed that he wouldn't be invited on those shows, since why bring someone on the show who had nothing to promote and was Kayfabe unemployed at the time?
Punk has never gone into real detail about how he felt about Chris Benoit, besides one small segment in Benoit's infamous tribute episode. Remember that Punk was supposed to Benoit's opponent for the ECW Championship at Vengeance: Night of Champions, so if Benoit had actually shown up, Punk would've wrestled him. Meaning that Punk would've wrestled a man who murdered his family mere days or hours prior, and wouldn't have found out until after the match happened. That would be completely and utterly traumatic for him, especially when you consider how close Punk had been to Benoit's best friend Eddie Guerrero, and how close Punk ended up being to Benoit himself as an extension of that. No wonder he's never talked in detail about it — it is, in hindsight, the biggest dodged bullet of Punk's career.
