By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor

WWE champion C.M. Punk addressed his issues with The Rock in an interview with the Chicago Tribune's Luis Gomez promoting WrestleMania. Among Punk's comments, he said he doesn't believe Rock deserves as much credit for the WrestleMania 27 buyrate last year and he believes Rock should shoulder the blame for the poor Survivor Series buyrate in November.

Punk's quote on Rock: "I don’t think I have a relationship with The Rock. Over the past few weeks, it’s been better. Probably because I’ve been outspoken in the media. Of course, everything gets sensationalized and twisted. I don’t hate The Rock or fault him for coming back. I just think heaping credit on The Rock for ratings, buyrates – that’s where I get offended. It’s a team effort 365 days a year. Me and the entire locker room bust our (butts) and all our super stoked. Give credit where credit is due. WrestleMania had a huge buyrate last year, not because of one guy. The numbers out there prove he hasn’t done much else, like the Survivor Series buyrate."

Link: Punk's full interview can be read at ChicagoTribune.com .

Caldwell's Analysis: Three points here. (1) Punk created a stir repeatedly dogging Rock in media interviews, so it's not clear where he's coming from with the story being "sensationalized and twisted" when he created the story. (2) Raw TV ratings were flat in 2011 before Rock came in and helped boost ratings from a 3.1-3.3 range to a 3.7-3.9 range before Mania. (Then, once Rock left, ratings returned to pre-Rock levels, beyond the usual post-Mania drop-off.) At WM27, Rock was able to energize a sleepy wrestling fanbase and captivate a non-wrestling/very casual group of people to order WrestleMania. The difference in stagnant business and successful business last year was clearly Rock. Others contributed, but everything points to Rock as the #1 factor.

(3) The Survivor Series buyrate was well-below expectations for a number of reasons. To say Rock "hasn't done much else" is forgetting that WWE botched the promotion for Survivor Series. There's a long list of reasons. For starters, WWE managed to take buzz from four months before Survivor Series (when the poster was released and Rock's in-ring return was teased) and whittle it all away. Then, instead of trying to get people to want to see Rock & Cena team up, WWE reinforced what a lot of people felt beforehand that they did not want to see two "sworn enemies" team up. This was after a methodical attempt to make Rock seem not special - reducing the value of the attraction - due to WWE and Cena's pettiness.

There's also the factor of WWE's PPV business sliding so far off the page over the past few years that anything other than WrestleMania and Royal Rumble is not being bought by people outside of WWE's standard buyer pool. (Punk experienced it first-hand when the MITB PPV in July only showing a slight bump, but not at expectations - similar to Survivor Series - despite all of the hooplah surrounding Punk's "worked shoot" promo and the prospect of him leaving WWE with the WWE Title belt.) Combine all of that with Cena & Rock essentially facing broomsticks who posed no threat to Rock & Cena based on the build-up, and it was a recipe for an underwhelming buyrate.

[Torch art credit Grant Gould (c) PWTorch.com]

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