With the news that John Cena had elbow surgery, he may not be able to compete for a number of weeks. I expect him to be on television, but will be unable to compete. Should WWE stall until Hell in a Cell in hopes that Cena can return to action then? With a lack of babyfaces on the roster, they may not have a choice. However, I do believe there are a few potentially interesting challengers for CM Punk. Here are my pics for the top challengers for CM Punk’s WWE Championship if Cena is unable to continue his feud right now.
Brock Lesnar
How interesting would it be if Lesnar and Punk began a feud with Paul Heyman in the middle? This scenario seems the least likely for a number of reasons. Punk and Lesnar are both heels and will likely stay that way for the foreseeable future. Another reason this may not happen is Lesnar’s limited appearance schedule. I believe WWE will save him for bigger pay per views. With that said, I can’t help but be intrigued by the idea of a Lesnar and Punk feud. Which would Heyman side with? Lesnar clearly needs him more due to his poor mic skills, but both are considered to be Paul Heyman guys.
Randy Orton
We recently saw a quality match between Orton and Punk due to a RAWactive twitter poll so we know the WWE Universe would be interested. Randy Orton has seemingly been trying to convince WWE to let him turn heel. In my opinion, he should be heel due to the fact that his character was much more interesting as a heel. However, as stated earlier, there is a drought of top babyfaces. Therefore, until WWE can find or develop new top babyfaces, Orton’s character will stay. After defeating Mr. Money in the Bank Dolph Ziggler, Orton needs a new feud and what better feud is there then the WWE Championship? We all know Punk and Orton’s matches would be phenomenal. I would consider this options as the most likely if WWE decides to choose a new opponent for CM Punk.
Sheamus
Are you surprised to see the World Heavyweight Champion on this list? The match was teased a couple weeks ago on RAW and I know I am not the only one who is bored of Super Sheamus. Imagine a WWE world where there is only ONE World Champion. If WWE doesn’t see Sheamus as a top face of Smackdown, then why not unify the two World Titles? The feud would be great and we would wonder if Punk could end the crazy winning streak of Super Sheamus. One potential storyline could be Sheamus is a big Irish drinker, while Punk plays straight edge card. I know that the straight edge storyline has been done before, but Punk always finds a way to make it different each time.
These are just a few options I thought would be interesting and plausible in a feud with CM Punk for the WWE Championship right now. I was reading similar articles and was not satisfied with the suggestions others were making. What do you think? Who would you like to see as a challenger for the WWE Championship?
Seth Guttenplan is the writer and editor of GuTTWrenchPowerBlog, a brand new WWE blog. Seth also writes for CamelClutchBlog.com and WrestlingRambles.com. Seth is also the host of Smackdown Rundown, ProWrestlingPowerhouse.com’s new weekly radio show. When Seth is not writing about wrestling, he is a Special Education teacher in New Jersey. To read more from Seth, follow him on twitter ( @sethgutt ) and visit http://guttwrenchpowerblog.com
Hi. My name is Adam and I'm from Oxford, Mississippi. I've grown up in this area my entire life. I went to the same schools from kindergarten to graduation, and I like it here. My interests include things from most areas of entertainment; sports, movies, TV, video games, etc etc, and, of course, wrestling. I'm actually fairly new to the wrestling world. My first episode of Raw was in August, shortly before Summer Slam. I couldn't tell you why I decided to start watching it. I just decided to sit down and check out Raw. I made sure to enter with the right mentality, reminding myself that it was supposed to be silly and a bit stupid at times. I gotta tell you, I was instantly hooked. I haven't missed a Raw or Smackdown since then. I'm the type of person that, when I get interested in something, I have to learn everything about it, and I went about devouring as much wrestling knowledge as I could find. It quickly escalated from knowing the terms "face" and "heel" to "marking out" and getting frustrated at the fact that they're never going to get Cena more over than he already is, I mean come on would the world have ended to give Ziggler the win on Raw? Who needs it more than he does?! *ahem* Excuse me, I'm still a bit frustrated at that, it seems. I love to write, especially when the things I write are of the opinionated variety. I hope you like my sample. The content of it isn't something no one hasn't examined, but I was more focusing on showing my writing style, I hope that's okay. I love wrestling. I got so hooked so quickly and haven't even thought of looking back. I hope you like what you see and I'd absolutely love to write for you guys. It sounds like it'd be a ton of fun.
00You must be logged in to post a comment.
Like Wrestle Enigma On Facebook
Follow Wrestle Enigma On Twitter
Don’t you think this would be the perfect time to give someone a shot who has not been in the main event scene in a World Title match? I mean, Cena is out, he was the only realistic guy to me. CM Punk is a heel so you rule out Lesnar, and Sheamus is WHC. Orton is really the only main event guy, but whose to say he’s not in line for WHC shot against Sheamus next month? So to me, you could throw a guy like maybe Christian into the fold.
If you think about it, Kofi may be a good idea to face off with Punk. Mainly due to the fact that he hasn’t been given a good story in a while. He is good friends with Punk. And the story should work out well with these two. Since it will be a one-off match.
Maybe have him talk to Punk and tell him that he doesn’t recognize him anymore and he’s not the best friend he had the last few years. Something like this.
Rey Mysterio could also work, you know the matches with those two are always good.
I dont think Kofi will ever reach the point of being a world championship contender. He has no chance as a face at least. Many people are still big fans of Christian and while he is a better choice than the others you mentioned, I still don’t see it happening. Rey Mysterio is going to stick with Sin Cara in a tag team until its time for them to feud.
Cena’s going to face Punk. The timetable now is 6-8 weeks. He got surgery on Tuesday, so 6 weeks from Tuesday, plus 5 more days, leads to the Hell in a Cell PPV. I don’t want to comment on Lesnar, it’s so unlikely and unrealistic, as for the other two?
1.) Randall would be the most viable candidate, because I don’t know what he’s going to do now. He has a movie to film, there’s always him and Sheamus, but I have a feeling that Big Show or even Mark Henry will pop back up. About his heel turn, I have read and felt it to be believable, that they’d turn Randall when they feel Sheamus is truly the top face draw on SD in all their house shows and tapings. I think getting there, it would be nice for Sheamus to go over Big Show, who is the gigantic heel that can make Sheamus a bigger face. Mark Henry can just pop back up and I’d believe him to be an already over heel. Even Wade Barrett, but I think he’s far into the future, not right now. After Sheamus goes over either big man, Randall comes, feuds with Sheamus as a face, then turns as the feud continues. Randall and CM Punk would be a great match, but this whole article just shows that without Cena, who does Punk really face next? It’s a bit sad, and that’s why as a mark for this man, I’d love it if Christian came. Yeah it won’t happen, I’ll just keep that in my head.
2.) I’m more inclined to comment on this because this goes into the unified champion deal. What the two world titles accomplish, for better or worse (that’s up to how they are booked), is giving two guys, not one, that designated push at the top of the cards. Look, the brand extension is over, that’s well established by now. However, is it over in house shows? No, Punk as WWE Champion works on top of RAW house show cards, Sheamus as world champion works on top of SmackDown house show cards. Unify both champions, well what’s the top match for either show if only one of them will have a world champion? Unless WWE truly merged everything, a unified world champion is not viable in my opinion, and that includes house shows that essentially wipe out SD and RAW’s likeness. Might as well be a supershow every live event, but that can’t happen. While depth issues are prevalent, it’s still a large roster. All this and what about Sheamus? Sheamus is the world heavyweight champion, he has to win matches, he should only lose when it’s for the title, or for storyline purposes. On the latter, if Randall pinned Sheamus in a non title contest, great, only if Randall gets a world title shot. The problem, admittedly, and I think that’s where this thought of Sheamus’ win streak comes to play, is that he wrestles on TV too much. With that comes the fact he faces guys below him on the card such as David Otunga, and it’s obvious who would win. However, people don’t go to that flaw specifically, and instead just have this general thought of “Super Sheamus” and the simpleton opinion of “winning too much.” Let’s be specific at least, he’s winning too much unimportant matches. Anyways, him and Punk would be great as a non title match, but with Hell in a Cell needing a top gimmick match, they can’t be in the Cell, both are the top guys in their brands, so it’s not possible. If say it was a PPV like Survivor Series, sure. Hell in a Cell? No, John Cena is most viable there.
How the f*ck is it possible? Brock Lesnar is out, Sheamus is the World Champ of a different company, and Orton is the only challenger. I hope Orton wins.
Lesnar is the least likely. Sheamus WC of a different company? Um no. Different brand? Maybe, but the brand extension barely exists anymore so it may be time to only have one world champ.
Sorry, meant brand. Anyway, only Orton is the legit guy to compete for it.
Man, that’s a sad list haha. Not the writing, just the fact that only two guys and one world champion are realistic challengers for the title.
WWE is lacking top babyfaces hence the sad list! haha