Former WWE creative team member Court Bauer, during a recent edition of “Bauer and Pollack,” made the following claim with regards to Shawn Michaels and Triple H having a habit of burying top talents like CM Punk while the two worked together in WWE:
“One time, Triple H along with HBK buried CM Punk. I think it was his 2005 tryout,” Bauer said. “Maybe he didn’t know the name, and wasn’t familiar with who it was but they buried him. They annihilated his look and his work and I’m like, ‘you just sunk the guy in front of the Chairman!'”
HBK has been making the media rounds lately to promote his new book, and during an appearance on Sirius XM’s TapouT Radio, Michaels not only denies the claims made by Bauer, but adds he never even met Bauer even though the two were working in WWE at the same time:
“I had someone tell me, ‘Triple H, he buried CM Punk.’ One, I never even met the guy [Court Bauer], supposedly he worked for us. Dave Lagana will tell you, as Punk will, that I was one of his biggest fans. The reason [WWE] didn’t like him is because he had a bad attitude. I’ve never seen anybody’s tryouts, they usually have them at the beginning of RAW.”
In response to the claims made by HBK, Bauer took to Twitter, @courtbauer, and posted the following:
“HBK followed me on twitter until recently. Worked w/ him on Rob Conway stuff. Other writers (@AlexDGreenfield) saw the Punk stuff. It’s easier to play dumb than be honest in wrestling. Problem is others saw it. It is what it is.”
Alex Greenfield, mentioned in Bauer’s Tweet, is also a former WWE writer, and during MLW Radio episode #166, Greenfield had the following to say regarding Bauer’s claims:
“It was Shawn, Triple H and Arn [Anderson],” Greenfield recalled. “They just f-cked Punk up! I don’t know if they knew who CM Punk was, because I certainly didn’t…They cut his work apart, they really buried the guy.
“When Shawn and Hunter were together man, they buried a bunch of people who were just starting out. I remember they did the same thing to Bobby Lashley…Shawn and Hunter backstage at that event curtainside, they looked out there and just buried the guy [Lashley]. You know how everybody has the friend that brings out the worst in you? That’s what it felt like all the time to me, dude. They just turned into catty f-cking b—–s.”