I never took to the edge plays matt situation.
As matt really should have just fell back but considering the circumstance he lamed/simped/squared out. When realistically he was only a victim cause he let himself be. So, in that matt had to grow and we see the end result of that. Yet past that as far as quality of product in the lita/edge/matt angle. I felt it was all oppurtunist driven and just there. It never clicked any boxes, even given how risque it was.
As far as punk and taker, the mania match build was awe-inspiring and probably the best most striking build to a big match with a wwe flagship we will ever get.
When punk poured the ashes on him,....
It was,....ooooOHHH, TAKER GON KILL YOU!
Followed by I got to see this shyt.
In punk dispatches hardy. Punk had his thunder stole and buried and was not allowed any continuity with quality that made him look as good as he should after he put Jeff hardy out the promotion.
Punk was excellent when allowed to work and imo, he worked well when he was shackled, buried by taker or neutered from bad pairing stablewise. Outside of Daniel Bryan, punk made the best out of bullshyt he was given. Yet Bryan is the only guy I seen take anything the WWE gave him no matter how preposterous.
To see vkm's vision and actually sell it and get it phenomenally over.
Punk incomprison was actually improving before he took his ball and went home from scsa's playbook. Yet I feel maybe if his health was better. Punk could have developed even better to being able to navigate the lack of quality in most WWE programming.
As far as edge/matt/lita, I feel they never got the full potential of the angle right. Plus I feel it was just in bad taste and a bad choice in bad taste as a drawing program.
Art Barr