Taker & Hogan to Counter Punk Chants?, Mixed Feelings on Punk’s Status, More

- After a week where the CM Punk talk has started to die down, people within WWE are looking ahead to the March 3rd RAW from Chicago. There is a lot of concern about how that show will play out. With The Undertaker and Hulk Hogan scheduled to return at the February 24th RAW, they could be brought to the Chicago RAW as a way to counter the Punk chants.

There was less concern this past week because while there were Punk chants at live events, they didn’t pick up or last that long. The feeling is that with nothing major happening with the Los Angeles crowd at RAW on Monday, it’s pretty much a done situation with the possible exception of Chicago.

Going into the Los Angeles RAW this week, officials feared fans would hijack the show and ruin the John Cena vs. Randy Orton main event. The idea was to bring Daniel Bryan out twice, including right before the main event, have him go over strong and get the chants out of the way.

There remains mixed feelings within the company regarding Punk’s status. Virtually nobody agrees with him when it comes to walking out 30 minutes before a live TV shoot. Many have sympathy for some of his concerns but they argue that Punk was legitimately the #2 guy in the company for a while. On a related note, it’s acknowledged that Punk was very popular but the belief is that he was not a ticket seller to live events and only on occasion was he a difference maker in pay-per-view business. At the same time, Punk was the #2 merchandise seller.