Blame Game
LOS ANGELES - Heading into SummerSlam, there was one question on the minds of every member of the WWE Universe: “Who will be the Undisputed WWE Champion after SummerSlam: CM Punk or John Cena?” Audible dueling chants of “Let’s Go Cena!” and “CM Punk” heard worldwide on Monday Night Raw and WWE.com polls showed WWE fans split almost evenly between the pride of West Newbury, Mass. and The Second City Savior. Either way, history was going to be made at SummerSlam.(RESULTS | PHOTOS)
However, an unforeseen series of events have etched neither the name “CM Punk” or “John Cena” into history as the current Undisputed WWE Champion. That honor now belongs to The Mexican Aristocrat, Alberto Del Rio.
Like their previous in-ring meetings, Sunday’s main event saw Cena and Punk share not only the support of the WWE Universe at the sold-out STAPLES Center in Los Angeles throughout the match, but also the offensive advantage. Triple H’s three-count that cost John Cena the Undisputed WWE Championship was obviously erroneous due to Cena’s foot being on the bottom rope ... but was it intentionally so? This question alone marks a mystery, though it is only the first in a series of queries.
Even though a few @WWE Twitter followers predicted that Alberto Del Rio would cash in his Raw Money in the Bank contract, no one could have guessed that former WWE Champion Kevin Nash (BIO) would play a part in altering WWE history. The question is, why did Nash attack newly crowned Undisputed WWE Champion CM Punk? Did Nash know that Alberto Del Rio would cash in his Money in the Bank contract and pick the bones left behind to claim the gold? If Nash did know of Del Rio’s opportunistic intentions, why would he want to help The Mexican Aristocrat fulfill his self-professed destiny? The first answer that comes to mind is money, but Alberto Del Rio has lots of it, and after a 20-year legendary career of his own, Nash probably doesn’t need the cash.
So if greed wasn’t Nash’s motive, did WWE COO Triple H give his longtime “Kliq” running buddy this opportunity to shock the world and re-enter the limelight by costing Punk the title on a globally televised stage? After all the insults hurled the way of him and his wife, Stephanie McMahon, by the Straight Edge Superstar, Triple H probably won’t be losing any sleep tonight over the arguable injustice that Punk suffered. And even though the look of shock and disbelief on his face would indicate Triple H had no knowledge of either Kevin Nash’s or Alberto Del Rio’s actions, The Game’s Hall of Fame career proves he can be dangerously duplicitous.
Speaking of WWE Executive Vice President of Operations, Stephanie McMahon, why was the wife of WWE’s new Chief Operating Officer at SummerSlam to begin with? Despite her well wishes to CM Punk early in the evening, (PHOTOS) was Stephanie at SummerSlam hoping to watch Punk lose the most important match of his career, or did she go even further and orchestrate Punk’s loss? Was that what Stephanie and her husband were speaking about moments before the main event? Is this the rebirth of the McMahon-Helmsley Era in the very same city where their marriage was shockingly revealed? Was this a bad night for COO Triple H, or did Sunday evening’s events play out in the ring exactly as they had in The Game’s mind before SummerSlam?
We may never have definitive answers to all of the questions surrounding Alberto Del Rio leaving SummerSlam as the Undisputed WWE Champion, yet one fact is indisputable: this was the most contentious SummerSlam in WWE history.
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