A lot of what you said is true, especially the bit about the merchandise, and making more money for WWE, but to be fair the reason that he means more to the history of WWE is because he has more history in WWE in general dating back 15 plus years ago which is filled with those classic tag-team ladder matches, the past 2 years have been CM Punk's only real years as a legit top guy in the company in both the eyes of the fans and the WWE.
Also, the Punk/Cena feud has meant more to WWE than any singles feud that Jeff Hardy has ever been apart of, CM Punk is also MILES better than Hardy in the ring. Punk also has a c/s from some of the best of all-time which accounts for something, and to be honest, Jeff has never had to wrestle with the burden of being one of the top 2 wrestlers in the company and being "the guy" every night like Punk has, i don't think any Hardy singles feud has been "The feud" in WWE.
It's true about Hardy with being with WWE longer but this is where your truths stop.
Punk is not MILES better than Hardy in the ring lol. Punk is one of more overrated talents when it comes to the ring in the business. I always use the worst possible opponent worker for a wrestler to compare how well a guy can work. So ALL of Ryback's matches with Punk were AWFUL. Fans hated, Meltzer hated. Cena gets in there, he goes longer with him and had a better match. It's amazing. Punk's matches with Jericho were not what they should be. Everyone can agree on this. Cena has had better matches with Jericho too. I keep saying Cena, because everyone thinks he sucks in the ring. I actually can't wait to see Punk vs Brock just to see if he is up to it.
Back to the topic, Jeff WAS the 2nd biggest wrestler in the company for about 2 years stretch from June 2007 to about June 2009. Guy was maineventing PPVs against Triple H, Edge, Orton, Punk, and most of those for World or WWE championships. I mean what else do you want from him? More people came to see him than anyone else other than Cena, and at times, he was above Cena.
When you say that Jeff never had the burden of being "the guy" you may be right, because he always had Cena, Orton and Triple H in that stretch, but to me Punk has never, ever been THE guy either. Just because you are WWE Champ doesn't mean that anymore. If you want to go back to say 2006 when he was the World Champ on RAW, guy was curtain jerking/only appearing at like 930.
Then fast forward to this title reign and I mean Cena is out here facing John Laurinitis maineventing PPVs, fighting Big Show in Main Events of PPVs, going up against Dolph Ziggler for no reason at all in Main Events. Meanwhile Punk is champ, and the fans aren't really riveted for him. Yes the smark towns were all for him, but when they went to bumblefukk Tennessee, no one was checking out his house shows. He is probably one of, if not the one lowest rated WWE champions of ALL TIME. So the fans tuned out, people on here were complaining, it was all over the place. He has his fans, and he should. He has a niche, but it's not a broad appeal to people.
And you can blame the booking, the writing, etc..But if Punk really wanted to change the business like he said, he could have done more to add to his championship reign. He could have complained that John Laurintis should not be maineventing PPVs in 2012. Hell when Hulk Hogan talked Vince into putting him and the Rock on last at Mania, Triple H and Jericho went down there to make sure the Championship (and the Kliq lol) is most important.
