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WWE Rumors: Why CM Punk vs. Mick Foley Shouldn't Happen at TLC

Posted: Oct 5th 2012 By: mikeiles

WWE Champion CM Punk and Hardcore Legend Mick Foley put on a great performance on last week's edition of Raw when they cut passionate promos on each other, but a match between them simply wouldn't live up to the lofty standards that each of them strive toward.

According to Wrestling Observer (via PWTorch.com), there is internal talk within the WWE that a match between Punk and Foley could happen at TLC in December.

TLC is the final pay-per-view prior to Royal Rumble, and Punk is expected to defend his title against The Rock at the Rumble. A match with Foley could serve as a stopgap.


TLC will take place at the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., which isn't far from Foley's home base of Long Island, so Foley would obviously get a great reaction. Having Punk decimate a WWE legend and hometown hero at TLC would help garner him more heel heat as well.

I fully understand all the arguments for a potential Punk vs. Foley encounter, but the negatives far outweigh the positives. Nostalgia often clouds the fans' perception as they choose to see Foley for what he was, but when it comes to in-ring competition, he is a shell of his former self.

The biggest issue is that I don't believe Foley is capable of putting on a 20-minute main-event match at a pay-per-view. Perhaps Foley would be fine in a quick encounter, but if he is facing the WWE Champion, then the bout is going to have some length to it.

Foley can barely walk to the ring because of all the abuse he took over the years, so he certainly won't be able to keep up with one of the best wrestlers in the world.

Foley's last meaningful in-ring competition came when he was an entrant in the Royal Rumble match at the beginning of the year.

He wasn't asked to do much other than a comedy sketch with Santino Marella featuring Mr. Socko and The Cobra, but it was clear that he couldn't move with any fluidity or do much of anything from a wrestling perspective.


Foley's match with Punk wouldn't just be a run-of-the-mill singles match. It would almost have to be a tables, ladders and chairs match, or some variation of it, in order to remain consistent with the theme of the event.

Foley made a living out of excelling in extreme match types, but his body is so beaten and battered that I don't believe he should be subjected to such a dangerous environment.

Many have been talking about how a bridge between Survivor Series and Royal Rumble is needed, but I don't see it that way. If the WWE truly believes that it has no alternative options for Punk at TLC, then it could conceivably go with Foley, but it would be very easy to do something else.

Provided John Cena's elbow injury his sufficiently healed, Punk is scheduled to face him at Hell in a Cell. I believe that Brock Lesnar and perhaps even Big Show and Dolph Ziggler as well will help Punk retain. That will lead to a huge Survivor Series match between a Punk-led team and a Cena-led team.

If Punk's team wins, then Cena can't have another title shot as long as Punk is champion. If Cena's team wins, however, then Cena gets one last crack at the title at TLC.

It isn't as if the WWE has some sort of long and arduous road to traverse between now and Royal Rumble, so it would be incredibly easy to keep the Punk vs. Cena feud going.

In fact, I hope it does continue, because I would prefer to see Cena win the title at TLC and face The Rock at Royal Rumble. I'm not a Cena fan in the slightest, but I believe that if Punk and The Rock are going to do battle, then it should be at WrestleMania instead.

We've already seen Cena vs. The Rock at Mania, so let them have their rematch at the Rumble, have Punk win the Royal Rumble match and then have him interfere in the title match, leading to a victory for The Rock.

I would thoroughly enjoy all of that, but none of it will be possible if we get Punk vs. Foley at TLC.

I absolutely appreciate everything Foley has done for the business and everything that he can still do, but wrestling in one of the year's biggest matches isn't something that he is capable of anymore.

Foley played his role to perfection and helped get Punk over even more as a heel. If he is going to continue to play a role in the product moving forward, then it needs to be with a mic and not his fists.