WWE’s Top 10 Most Controversial Storylines

9. CM Punk & The Undertaker’s Build to WrestleMania 29

#9 is a perfect example of the WWE over thinking an angle.  The Undertaker and CM Punk would’ve had absolutely no problem creating a fantastic build to their Wrestlemania 29 clash on their own.  Punk had already made his motives clear for wanting the match with Taker, he blamed the WWE fans for him losing the WWE Championship to The Rock and he wanted to take The Dead Man’s streak from them like they’d done to him and his title reign. That’s animosity enough.  A few promos between the two and maybe an altercation and they’d be set.  When two guys are this good at what they do, you don’t need to get cute.

But for some insanely insensitive reason, the company decided to get the recently deceased longtime manager of The Undertaker, Paul Bearer, involved.  While Taker was delivering an in-ring speech about the death of Bearer, Punk stole the urn which supposedly held his ashes.  Later in the night, Paul Heyman came out dressed as Bearer as a distraction, and Punk used that as an opportunity to assault Taker with said urn and dumped the ashes over his limp body.

Now the ashes were obviously not Bearer’s actual remains.  That would be insane.  But the idea of doing it alone was way too over the top.  This encounter happened on April 1st.  Bearer died March 5th.  It hadn’t even been a month!  This build to Mania definitely garnered a ton of heat but at what cost?  And was it really necessary?  The duo went on to have an absolute classic at WM 29 and they could have still done that without desecrating the honor of a guy spent most of his life in the wrestling business.