The Redemption of CM Punk

“Let me preface this, ladies and gentlemen, with uh, wrestling is fake, and it doesn’t really fucking matter in a lot of instances who wins and who fucking loses.”

But a couple of Saturday’s ago, for the character of CM Punk and his fans, it did matter. It mattered a whole lot.

A loss for CM Punk would’ve set Drew McIntyre up beautifully, and in some ways it’s a shame that didn’t happen. Drew damn sure deserves it and what they do with him next had better be fucking excellent. But for CM Punk, victory in such a brutal match established he can still go (and then some), he can still draw (that PLE might as well have been titled “Punk vs McIntyre, plus some Judgement Day”), and that the machine is starting to gain faith in CM Punk. Look at the graphic for Raw on Netflix. I’m not so delusional as to claim WWE has that deal because of CM Punk, but it’s clear that Netflix has faith in him as a draw. You don’t get to be front and centre of the promo graphic if that’s not the case.

To be honest, it’s not just WWE who seem to have regained some faith in CM Punk. I can’t speak for all his fans, but there have been times over the last few years where I thought maybe we’d seen the best of CM Punk and it was all downhill from here. Let’s start with AEW, and let’s get my sub-heading out of the way straight away:

AEW ruined the return of CM Punk long before any of the Brawl Out / Brawl In chaos.

AEW ruined the return of CM Punk by focusing on matches. CM Punk vs Darby Allin was followed by a match every couple of weeks against the likes of Powerhouse Hobbs, Daniel Garcia, Evan Bourne (you heard me), Bobby Fish… While they’re not “dream” matches on a par with Rock v Hogan, they’re still matches wrestling fans never thought they’d see. And, to a degree, it was cool to see them. Then, building up to Full Gear, we got a two-week programme between Punk and Eddie Kingston. TWO WEEKS! Punk v Kingston should have been a three-month epic, and instead they blew their load after two weeks. CM Punk had been back for two months at this point, and I was bored.

Having CM Punk in your company and putting him in matches without stories behind them is a waste of CM Punk, and a drastic misunderstanding of CM Punk the character. He is a fantastic wrestler, more than capable of putting on a ‘5-star classic’, but CM Punk is at his best when he’s telling a story. And until they corrected course with the MJF programme, his booking seemed to be just “oh wouldn’t it be cool to see CM Punk vs Darby Allin?” Well yes, it would, but only if you give us a story to work with beyond “oh gosh, oh golly, I sure am happy to be back in wrasslin’.” It’s unfortunate for AEW that they started to give Punk stories to work with at the same time as the politics started rearing their ugly head, but ultimately, they missed their window of opportunity.

Now, counter that with the way WWE has booked CM Punk since his return. Yes, to a degree their hand was forced by injury, but even before Royal Rumble what did they do? They put Punk on the show with a microphone in his hand and a worthy adversary on the other side of the ring. They didn’t throw him straight into a nothing match (unless you count Christmas house shows with Dominik Mysterio, and if you think that’s the same as a PLE against Darby Allin then I suggest you enjoy a nice tall glass of shut-the-fuck-up juice), in fact they kept him out of the televised ring until Royal Rumble. I’m not delusional, I’m sure at least part of that booking was due to concerns over his recent injuries and a reluctance to get behind him until he’d proven himself. But the fact remains, WWE maximised the character of CM Punk from day one.

Look at Drew McIntyre storming off, Seth Rollins throwing a hissy fit, even Randy Orton interacting with him from the ring at Survivor Series… That is how you book a character like CM Punk.

For all my praise of CM Punk, it would be utterly foolish to argue that it’s entirely him. As a collective audience, we should be incredibly appreciative of the outstanding performer Drew McIntyre has become. He was already a top-tier star but he’s taken it to another level and anointed himself with Raven, Samoa Joe, John Cena, and perhaps Triple H as one of CM Punk’s greatest rivals. When you consider how many active years CM Punk has had in the wrestling business that’s an impressive achievement in itself; it’s even more impressive that he’s done it (a lot of the time) with nothing to play off. It wasn’t a back-and-forth, it was Drew McIntyre telling a story of hatred in such a captivating way that we didn’t need to see Punk every week. He has made far better television with CM Punk than anything during his time with AEW, and I include the MJF rivalry in that. And again, this is because WWE seems to understand how to book CM Punk the character; perhaps just as importantly, WWE seems to be getting behind CM Punk the character.

McIntyre deserves a special mention for achieving, somehow, an almost complete absence of mixed reaction from the crowd. If the WWE audience still contains CM Punk haters then it’s a minority so small that they’re inaudible during every show I’ve watched recently. And that’s with Drew McIntyre regularly reminding us: “CM Punk is an arsehole. A lot of people feel wronged, let down, betrayed by CM Punk”. And yet the audience doesn’t care, partly because McIntyre has made himself into such a phenomenal heel, but also because the intangibles with CM Punk are so strong that he’s just inherently connected with the audience.

So, the question becomes: if CM Punk is back, how do you keep maximising that character now that the blood feud is over?

Honestly, I’m not even entirely sure what CM Punk’s character is now, outside of Drew McIntyre’s hated rival. He’s no longer the voice of the voiceless because, in many ways, the voiceless now have a voice: AEW. Wrestling fans have somewhere to go where they can experience, in theory, the type of wrestling that CM Punk is a fan of. But it’s skewed so far towards the in-ring product that I’m not convinced CM Punk would ever have lived up to his potential in AEW. For all his assertions of being the best wrestler in the world (and for a time I believe he was), he’s also arguably the best sports entertainer in the world.

I would argue that the next thing to do with CM Punk’s character is to make him the guy.

Now, I appreciate that many people will see Cody Rhodes as “the guy”. He faced adversity, slayed The Beast, then toppled the Tribal Chief from his throne with a fantastically told story. In fulfilling his father’s legacy, he became the champion the Rhodes family so thoroughly deserves. But if I’m being brutally honest, I find the character of Cody Rhodes boring. And I’m confident I’m not alone in this belief, as Cody is very clearly targeted towards that younger demographic who love a true blue babyface. Cody Rhodes, to all intents and purposes, is John Cena ten years ago.

To anyone past puberty, Roman Reigns is still the guy you pay to watch. He’s a badass, he’s cool, he’s telling a multi-year, multi-layered story that has earned its place as one of the greatest programmes of all time. But that story is starting to reach its finale, and while that doesn’t necessarily signal the end of Roman Reigns as the top dog, it does mean there’s an opening for another, bigger story to be told by another big character. And there’s not many people in a better position to take over from Reigns than CM Punk.

Not just because he’s over, but because of his age: at 45 years old, if WWE really want to maximise their (presumably significant) investment in Punk, this is the time. The pinnacle of the Bloodline may come as early as Wrestlemania this year; even if the storyline technically continues, can they really go anywhere bigger than Reigns vs Rock? And if the final chapter in that behemoth of a tale has been written, where better to go for the sequel than the most unlikely Summer Of Punk ever? Alright fine, perhaps I am getting a little carried away. But even the most ardent CM Punk haters can’t argue that he makes for captivating television, and a Netflix-endorsed M-rated CM Punk as WWE Champion is something I would love to see.

Whatever happens next, I’m grateful. I’m grateful to Phil Brooks for giving WWE another chance with the CM Punk character. I’m grateful to Triple H and Nick Khan for bringing CM Punk back. I’m incredibly grateful to Drew Galloway for creating such an outstanding foil to the returning Punk. I’m grateful to Tony Khan for convincing CM Punk to return to wrestling. And I’m grateful to the Young Bucks/Adam Page/Jack Perry for acting like children and pushing him out of AEW and into the professional environment where CM Punk has been able to prove to the world:

“I am exactly everything that I say I am, and I am who I know I can be. I just need the machine to get behind me and then boom.”

Guess what?

The machine is behind him.

What’s next?

Boom.