Vacant Title & Punk's Opportunity

Judgment Day has come and gone, with three titles successfully defended and one still hanging. The World Heavyweight title remains undecided as of today, as Undertaker won via countout, just barely over Edge. Smackdown's protagonist GM, Vickie Guerrero continues to make Undertaker's life a living hell and told him he can't win the title by countout. There's no bending of the rules in this one, but now we get to wonder when will this title be decided?

Very likely we will see the title decided on Smackdown or at Night of Champions, the next WWE Pay-Per-View. They may even hold another battle royal or a Triple Threat this time around. Many analysts and fans predicted that last night would see the Rated-R Superstar take the belt, since he and Vickie worked out the big plan on Smackdown. But we still have Teddy Long who may be a factor in all of this.

The questions this raises are interesting though. First off, why is Undertaker having such short title reigns? It could be due to age, not wanting to risk injury at this stage of his career, or simply to keep things interesting on Smackdown. I can remember his first title win which was shortlived as it came due to a cheap win over Hulk Hogan. The belt was vacated then as well, setting up a tournament for the title. Realistically, Undertaker is the sort of superstar who has dominated in WWE and these short title reigns make very little sense for the future WWE hall of famer. He should be holding the title for a similar length as a Hulk Hogan, or more recently John Cena. Screwing over the Deadman is not the best idea either, so expect Vickie and Edge to pay the price.

The other question regards Mr. Money in the Bank, CM Punk. The fact the World Heavyweight is up for grabs makes you almost want to believe Punk will be worked into that title picture. But he just doesn't seem to be cashing in, and WWE is toying with the fans about when he will. While surprises are great, it seems the more he holds onto the briefcase, the lesser his popularity will be as a major champion (WWE title or World Heavyweight). He recently tagged with Kane to face the tag champs, and they lost, with Punk the one pinned. While it wasn't the cleanest win, Punk also lost on last week's ECW to The Miz, a guy who is still in the learning stages.

This all leads one to believe Punk is going to cash in and regain the ECW title he once proudly had cinched around his waist. He would need a major push and big wins right now to look like a WWE or World Heavyweight champion. Either that, or Punk will make some sort of major heel turn to take one of those titles away from someone. And don't count out some other superstar challenging Punk for his briefcase, winning it, and cashing it in soon. Either way, WWE is doing a good job of building suspense, but it may be diminishing Punk's popularity as a major champion in the process.