WWE’s Paul Heyman has claimed that “the case could be made” for CM Punk defeating The Undertaker at WrestleMania 29.
The match was passed over for the main event by John Cena vs The Rock, who main evented WrestleMania for the second time in a row – much to the chagrin of CM Punk.
Punk had held the WWE title for 434 days before losing to The Rock at Royal Rumble 2013. He then went on to a feud with The Undertaker, aiming to end The Streak after the death of Undertaker’s manager Paul Bearer.
The initial build to the match was poor. CM Punk won a fatal 4 way to earn the shot to face The Deadman at WrestleMania.
It soon heated up, with Punk mocking the death of Bearer, even pouring Bearer’s ashes over himself on the ramp, in one of the most disgusting heel acts of the 21st century.
This lead to a heated, high-stakes match that could not be matches, with Punk putting on a performance of a lifetime to try and end the legendary 20-0 streak at WrestleMania.
He did not managed to win the match, but Paul Heyman has put the case forward that Punk could have been the right man to end the streak.
Paul Heyman on CM Punk ending The Streak
Paul Heyman says CM Punk could have ended the streak, noting that a case could be made for him to beat The Undertaker at WrestleMania 29.
In a recent appearance on the “Tetragrammaton” podcast, Paul Heyman discussed CM Punk vs The Undertaker at WrestleMania 29, pondering whether or not Punk was the right man to end the streak.
He noted that a case could have been made for CM Punk to beat The Undertaker at WrestleMania, claiming it could have launched Punk into a superstardom that only John Cena enjoyed in the WWE.
In the podcast interview, Paul Heyman said about CM Punk vs The Undertaker;
“It had to be the right guy. When we were going with Punk vs. Undertaker, Paul Bearer had just passed away and we had done the way out of the box and way over the line story on television that we had laid out The Undertaker and then we poured out the ashes of Paul Bearer out of Undertaker’s urn onto Undertaker, which was just the heaviest thing we could think of doing. I was like, ‘Okay, if there’s a guy that could be anointed as a top-tier star. If there’s someone that could become equal to Cena at this point in time… a clear 1 to 1A, that if we give Punk this victory, we’ve established someone for the next 20 years as a star.’ And I thought the case could be made for that.”
As it turns out, the following year another Paul Heyman-guy would end the streak. Brock Lesnar defeated The Undertaker at WrestleMania 30, in one of the most infamous matches in WrestleMania history.