CM Punk officially punched his ticket to the WrestleMania 41 main event on the March 28 episode of WWE SmackDown in London. The Second City Saint stepped into the ring with Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins to sign the contract for whats being billed as the biggest triple threat in WrestleMania history.
But in the middle of all the dramachants, staredowns, bubblegum references, and some heavy tension with Paul Heymanfans had one big question: Did Punk find out about his WrestleMania main event spot live on-air?
According to Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select, the answer is a hard no. When asked directly if Punk learned about the Mania main event during the segment, Sapp made it clear that kind of thing doesnt just happen in WWE. They might claim that, but everything that I have ever seen that is that story driven and story involved was scripted out ahead of time for WWE, Sapp said.
He added that even the most real promos are typically locked in beforehand. Even promos that you guys thought were not scripted have been scripted.
While WWE has loosened the reins a bit under Triple Hs creative direction, theres still a strong system behind the scenes. Are promos less scripted under Triple H, or does it depend on the talent? Both. They are a little less scripted at times, but its still a lot of stuff gets scripted verbatim, Sapp explained.
He did clarify that certain starslike The Rockget more leeway: The Rock is not going out there with an exact script. Hes able to riff quite a bit, but he works with Brian Gewirtz and other people as well.
So, as much as WWE might try to paint Punks contract signing as a surprise to him, dont buy into the hype. It was always part of the planand the script.
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