What's funny to me is that Punk has said this should be Daniel Bryan's year, so if he does leverage himself into the WM main event, he'd be stealing Bryan's spot.
Not true. They seem to not want to put Bryan in the main event, so how can Punk be stealing Bryan's spot if he was never really gonna be in it anyway?
Because if he really wanted Daniel Bryan to get the main event, he could try to use his leverage to make that happen. Agree to come back and face Triple H at Mania on the condition that they add Bryan to the title match. I'm not saying that would work, of course; I'm just saying it's something he could try if he was really doing this for the fans. The thing is, I'm not at all sure he's doing this for the fans, or for Daniel Bryan, or for anybody other than himself. And if he walked out on his contract as a power play to put himself in the main event, then as far as I'm concerned, he's really just a child throwing a temper tantrum when he doesn't get his way.
Don't get me wrong, I'd still love it if Punk was added to the main event. It would be better with him than without him, because I still have the utmost respect for him as a performer. I'm just not sure how I'll feel about him as a person if he's just been holding the WWE hostage to get himself back in the spotlight.
I could not disagree more.
Is he trying to get a better spot for himself? Of course, but what is wrong with that? Should he just roll over and allow himself to be booked horribly, just so he can say he towed the company line and did what he was told? Hell no. Remember that the whole reason Michaels, HHH, Nash and Hall formed the Kliq back in the day was to have more say in how they were booked, instead of having to bow down to Vince and kiss his ass. When you have power, you have leverage, and Punk has both at the moment. When you combine how pissed the fans are at Bryan's awful booking as of late with Punk's departure, it is safe to say that
right now the WWE needs Punk more than he needs them, which is why Vince has reportedly been scrambling like crazy to get him back in the fold. Besides, there isn't a performer in the business with tons of power who hasn't used it to get what he wanted. Hogan, Flair, Austin, Rock, Undertaker, Bret, Michaels, HHH, Cena, Punk, etc....they've all done it. It's the nature of the business.