Bruce Prichard Says World Title Was Taken Off CM Punk In 2008 For Chris Jericho – Shawn Michaels Feud

Bruce Prichard with another revelation.

The latest episode of former WWE creative writer Bruce Prichard’s ‘Something To Wrestle’ podcast with his host Conrad Thompson was based on the 2008 ‘Unforgiven’ PPV which took place at the ‘Quicken Loans Arena’ in Cleveland, OH. The PPV featured talents from RAW, SmackDown and ECW brands. As Prichard and Conrad went down the match card, they discussed the backstage segment that took place after the Scramble Match for the WWE Championship.

The then-World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk was being interviewed by Eve Torres because Punk was set to defend the World Heavyweight Title in a Scramble match in the main event against Dave Bautista, Rey Mysterio, John Bradshaw Layfield and Kane. As the interview was wrapping up, Punk was approached by Randy Orton and after the two exchanged a few words, Punk was attacked by Cody Rhodes, Ted DiBiase and Afa Anoa’i Jr. At the end of the beat down Randy Orton delivered a “punt-kick” to Punk which put the straight-edged superstar on the sideline in storyline and he was not able to defend his title on the show that night. 

Chris Jericho, who was defeated by Shawn Michaels earlier in the night went on to replace Punk in the Scramble Match and became World Heavyweight Champion. Bruce Prichard revealed during his podcast that the reason Punk had the title taken off of him was simply because Vince McMahon wanted Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels’ Ladder match at the ‘No Mercy’ PPV which was a few weeks after ‘Unforgiven’ to have a championship belt up for grabs.

Prichard cues his Vince McMahon voice* “God dammit, Shawn and Jericho need a Ladder match. What do you put on the ladder? Gotta have a championship on the ladder.” Prichard said. “That’s it man, right there.” Prichard went on to speak about how Punk took the news about having to randomly drop the title, “Confusion, really confusion, and when you look back, to me, Jericho and Shawn did not need that fu****g title. They needed a prop. They needed a prop for a Ladder match, okay, but they sure as hell didn’t need the championship. I thought Punk needed the championship. I thought that the championship helped Punk. But, at that point it was needed for a prop… to have a Ladder match. So, as crazy and as many conspiracy theories that people wanna throw out there, it’s as simple as that.” Prichard continued, “Yeah it did [suck] and also what sucked is, you can see, hindsight being 20/20, you see the interview with Punk where they jump him and Punk’s not even into it. He’s frustrated and probably upset all rightfully so by the way. So you feel before they even jump him its, ‘Okay, I’m gonna do this, its whatever, f**k it’, and it did suck because it made no sense.”

Chris Jericho is still winning championships to this day as he is the reigning IWGP Intercontinental Champion but Jericho is also putting on the finishing touches to his ‘Rock N’ Wrestling Rager At Sea’ cruise which begins next month. A new match was just added to the cruise and to find out what that match is, click here.

If you are going to use the quote above, please credit ‘Something To Wrestle’ with an H/T to Fightful for the transcriptions.