World Wrestling Entertainment has been experiencing a loss of fans due to the fact they've made their product TV-PG and got corny. Recently though, they've begun bringing fans who left them back into the fold, including yours truly, due to recent work by CM Punk. Back in 2007 my brother and I gave up watching wrestling on a regular basis because it started sucking. We’d still order the “big four” pay per views of WrestleMania, Summerslam, Survivor Series, and Royal Rumble but we’d give up investing serious time watching the product. Why? Because the WWE had gotten lamer than lame. The Rock was long gone, Brock Lesnar left for the UFC, and John Cena was made to be superhuman and was put over every big star in the company as a means of the WWE forcing him down everybody’s throat.
Cena was put over Chris Jericho, Edge, Triple H, and Shawn Michaels. He even dominated Kurt Angle. All of this despite the fact Cena, who is supposed to be the WWE's golden boy and biggest face, was getting booed. WWE began making their product more kid friendly in an effort to secure Cena’s fan base and figured if they just kept having him win the fans would change their tune. We’re at the point in time where it is really only little kids who cheer for Cena and everybody else wants him to lose. This has been the story for a few years, and that’s why my brother and I gave up watching.
However, during this time there was one ray of hope. There was a superstar – WWE doesn’t call their performers wrestlers – who had the potential to be the king of the business. He had that sort of rock star swagger of Edge, the unbelievable charisma of Chris Jericho, and the wrestling ability of Bret Hart. Of course I’m talking about the “straight edge superstar” CM Punk. What originally drew me to CM Punk was the fact he is straight edge. It blew my mind that a guy in a business full of substance abuse and steroids just steered clear of all of it. Punk is so much smaller than so many of the top guys in the WWE but he never looks outmatched or outclassed. The next thing that got me intrigued was the fact Paul Heyman supported him.
In the summer of 2006 Punk was brought in to WWE’s reboot of ECW because Heyman loved him. Heyman ran the original ECW (greatest wrestling promotion of all time) and had been a huge supporter of Lesnar and Raven and other awesome performers. If Heyman said Punk was good, then you better believe Punk was the man. Punk had long been hailed as the king of the independent wrestling leagues, but I had never seen him until his debut promo on ECW. I thought he could be pretty cool, so I started looking up his past promo work. I found this classic promo on Germany and I was hooked. It was amazing that Punk played the heel so perfectly by using his straight edge lifestyle to proclaim himself better than everybody else. But of course, WWE brought him in as a good guy and misused him for a long time.
Eventually Punk won the Money in the Bank ladder match at WrestleMania, in which the winner receives a contract for a world championship match good anytime and anywhere within the calendar year. One night in 08 I was watching Raw since there was nothing else on and Edge, World Heavyweight Champion at the time, was cutting a promo but then Batista came out and beat the shit out of him. Then Punk came out and cashed in his Money in the Bank title shot and became World Champion for the first time. Of course they kept him face and put him in stupid feuds and never gave him attention. It was crap, but luckily they've changed their ways.
I shit you not, four years ago I told my brother the best thing the WWE could do is turn CM Punk heel and feud him with John Cena. I said Punk had all the charisma and skill to be the number one heel in the company. It would be amazing to pit the real wrestling fans against the little kids and women. I told my brother this, but I figured it would never happen. But finally in the summer of 2009 things started changing. Punk turned heel that summer in a feud against fan favorite and drug abusing scumbag Jeff Hardy. Punk became the arrogant straight edge douche and played it off perfectly. This then led to Punk starting “The Straight Edge Society” in which he’d brainwash people into joining his cult of clean living. He cut great promos, worked awesome matches, and always got a rise out of the crowd.
I started watching wrestling a little bit again this year because The Rock had made his return to guest host WrestleMania. It did my heart good to watch Raw and see CM Punk be the best part of it with his great promos on Randy Orton. After losing to Orton at WrestleMania I had figured WWE once again dropped the ball with CM Punk. I could not have been any more wrong.
Last month the WWE started the storyline that has made them relevant once again. Punk went on a winning streak against the top guys on Raw then announced his contract with WWE ended the night of the Money in the Bank pay per view, which took place in his hometown of Chicago. He made a promise to win the championship from John Cena that night and then leave WWE with the belt. Punk cut one of the greatest promos of all time, ripping the WWE and owner Vince McMahon and his family to shreds and proclaiming himself to be the best in the world. They cut the mic off during the promo and people began to wonder if this was a storyline or if this guy was for real. Punk spent the weeks in buildup to the pay per view speaking his mind and going nuts. He is supposed to be the heel but everybody is giving him massive ovations and loving him up. Punk’s work is drawing the attention of all kinds of people. Colin Cowherd of ESPN was talking about how brilliant Punk was, GQ had a huge interview with him, Bill Simmons of ESPN has started a new website and there have been a few pieces on Punk written there. People were taking notice, and it all came to a head at Money in the Bank.
In the main event of what was one of the best shows WWE has run in ages, CM Punk and John Cena faced off in a match that people have been raving about for a couple weeks now. Punk’s entrance was one of the craziest things to happen as of late in wrestling because he’s supposed to be the bad guy going up against the biggest hero in the company, but everybody in that Chicago crowd was chanting Punk’s name for two minutes before his music even hit. When he came out it was the ultimate hero’s welcome and when he hit his finisher, the Go to Sleep, on Cena and got the three count for the win the crowd exploded. The guys who write about the inner workings of the business online all lost their shit and began calling this The Summer of Punk. Indeed it is.
In the span of a month CM Punk has become what WWE always wanted John Cena to be but hasn’t been able to become: the huge crossover star that gets people talking about the company again. After Punk won the title he claimed he was retiring and staying home in Chicago with the title. People were buying into this like he was really done. WWE even did a tournament for the “vacant” WWE title and made no mention of CM Punk as if they had a real split. Punk crashed the WWE/Mattel panel at Comic Con to say the tournament was crap and he’d have the real belt back home in Chicago, reaffirming he was done with WWE. When John Cena won the championship to end Raw this past Monday, “Cult of Personality” by Living Colour hit and out walked CM Punk with the real WWE Championship. Normally the heel would be booed for interrupting the face’s celebration, but CM Punk received a standing ovation and when he stared down Cena the crowed popped way more for Punk than they did Cena when each man lifted his championship.
You want to know how big this whole CM Punk angle is getting? If you type in “cult of personality” in a search on Youtube, the first suggested result is “cult of personality cm punk.” That song was big before Punk used it in WWE, but now it is picking up steam just because he stared down John Cena with it playing. The mere fact WWE was willing to pay to use the song says something. At Money in the Bank Punk had an amazing shirt with his logo and the words “Best in the World” on it, and they were only sold that night. They’re now going for hundreds of bucks on Ebay. That’s pretty amazing. Punk made a funny appearance on Jimmy Kimmel this past week, and was featured on Bill Simmons' podcast.
On that podcast Punk talked about the world of professional wrestling and how he’s out to “make that shit cool again.” Much like Stone Cold Steve Austin transformed wrestling in the 1990s by being the anti-hero, CM Punk is doing the same and is breaking ground in the WWE. There’s never been a wrestler who openly rips apart the company and its main star, talks about how the company’s booking is crap, then wins the championship and becomes the most popular guy in the business. He is the best in the world, and has been for years. It is just nice that finally the WWE has taken notice and has given him the ball.
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