WWE Edits CM Punk Promo, Adds Crowd Noise

CM Punk went old school on John Cena during last night’s June 27 episode of Friday Night SmackDown, donning Cena’s iconic “Doctor Of Thuganomics” look, “Word Life” music, and gimmick to deliver some bars at Cena’s expense. In response to Cena parodying Punk’s “Pipebomb” promo last week, Punk looked to try and humiliate Cena. 

During Punk’s performance of several rhymes and lines, a few were flubbed and Punk’s words got caught over themselves, making for a few awkward deliveries. Whether it be due to a lack of understanding of some of Punk’s lines or due to the disjointed performance, the audience at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia were not especially loud at the end of Punk’s biggest roasts - notably his references to the likes of Nikki Bella and The Marine series. 

SmackDown aired live for international viewers on Netflix (though with a big technical issue that took the show off air for the first 40 minutes) but at normal broadcast time for those in the US, giving WWE ample time to edit the segment. According to a report from Fightful Select, Punk’s mishaps were edited out, and crowd noise was piped in to give the sense of bigger reactions and a hotter atmosphere. The lack of noise could also be put down to the fact that many of those in Saudi Arabia were not all too happy with Punk’s presence due to previous comments made about the country - something he apologised for during the Night Of Champions Kickoff event.

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