Reality Check
Keepin' it 100
I can see where Truth is coming from here given Punk's momentum absolutely killed what was going on with Truth at the time (then again he just would have been fed into the InCenarator a couple more times anyways before moving back down the card). At the same time though, Awesome Truth in no way, shape or form was a hotter movement than what was going on with Punk post-pipe bomb. IIRC Awesome Truth only lasted a couple months, jobbed to Cena/Rock and ended because it was Truth who got busted for a wellness violation and was suspended.
Different thread for a different day, but yea, WWE fukked up that storyline badly.
To be honest, Punk should've been gone from MITB 2011 to NOC 2011, creating all types of fukkery outside of WWE and trolling whoever ended up "interim" champ (who should've been crowned at Summerslam, Rey was a good option).
Then he wins at NOC and comes back as the true/real WWE champion.
Now, who could've stepped up and done a good/big program with Punk at the time besides Cena? I honestly don't know. One would've hoped that in the 2 months he would've been off TV doing his Summer of Punk shtick, someone could've emerged to make shyt interesting during the Fall.
Different thread for a different day, but yea, WWE fukked up that storyline badly.