The Rise of CM Punk (1999-2021) - Underrated or Overrated?

if the art of not giving you is a wrestling character cm punk is probably what you would see he's become one of the most polarizing figures in the entire wrestling business some people love him some people hate him but you can't deny the career that he's had up until this point everywhere he's been he's been a top star semantics politics aside he's done it the dude simply wore his heart on his sleeve for his entire wrestling career but how did cm punk become one of the hottest things in pro wrestling this is the rise of the best in the world cm punk before touring the world cm punk started his career as a backyard wrestler performing alongside his buddies and his brother in the lwf or lunatic wrestling federation pretty close to his hometown of chicago it was during this time where cm punk got his name because he was in a tag team called the chick magnets where the cm stemmed from that obviously makes sense name it all cm punk got a bigger itch for pro wrestling he didn't want to spend his time wrestling in the backyard but he wanted to do it on a professional level so he decided to go get some training at steel domain wrestling where he was trained by a steel danny dominion and kevin quinn basically here it said that cm punk genuinely wanted to do this unlike his friends who just did it for fun his official pro wrestling debut came at age 20 in 1999 in minnesota and it was during this time where he found his home promotion of iwa mid-south where he mixed things up with people like eddie guerrero rey mysterio and aj styles wrestling those guys mixed with punk's ability to put on classic matches with basically anyone it made him a very hot commodity in the indie circuit punk was on the rise which led him to different promotions one of which was tna here he would spend time in raven's flock before ultimately turning on him and leaving tna because while working for tna punk was also with ring of honor which tna didn't want their wrestlers to work for because of what happened in the rob feinstein controversy pause it here if you want to read what happened but this was a blessing in disguise for cm punk now he was in ring of honor full stop and he quickly found success winning tag team gold and from here he had some high profile matches with guys like aj styles the thing with punk was his straight edge character just worked when he was feuding with raven he and raven were perfect as both just juxtaposed each other's characters to a perfect t and the fans loved that cm punk voiced his displeasure towards drugs and alcohol this came from punk's past as his dad was an alcoholic so he saw this and basically rebelled against everything he saw the anti-hero character worked perfectly for him and this helped him gain a huge following on the indies in roh punk and samoa joe were putting on some barn burner matches which started to catch a lot of people's attention the first two ended in 60 minute draws and the second of those matches earned a 5 star rating in the process the first wrestling match in north america to get that rating in seven years it was during this time that cm punk caught wwe's eye in 2005 and he was later signed to the company surprisingly enough vince mcmahon didn't vince mcmahon his name and call him pepsi punk or anything like that he let him keep his indie name when he arrived to the wwe roh fans knew that cm punk had been offered a wwe contract but shockingly enough he won the roh world title and then he went commando heal telling fans that they were all delusional he said he'd quit the company and he'd take the title with him the dude even signed his wwe contract on the ring of honor title this man was making a ring of honor storyline one of the biggest in pro wrestling rohs just had this buzz around it people were talking about cm punk's ability to be a phenomenal character but also with that came the mystique of is he gonna take the title to wwe would he actually take it there would he lose it what was going on in that summer of 2005 he had title defenses against jay lethal christopher daniels and roderick strong before he eventually lost the title to jamie noble there was a legit belief that cm punk was going to appear on wwe with the roh title but that never happened he lost it and the first summer of punk was officially over it was time for the second city savior to begin his wwe career when cm punk left roh he went to obw the same place that churned out names like john cena brock lesnar randy orton and batista here he competed against wrestlers like kenny dykstra mr kennedy and the miz obviously not the most elite crop in ovw history but hey he needed to go there to become somewhat molded into wwe's vision from here he would become the obw tv champion before winning the company's world championship cm punk later made his debut in the wwe ecw debut the one with durag vince here we got introduced to what cm punk was all about he didn't do drugs he didn't smoke he didn't party he was just a pro wrestler through and through with him he brought in all those fans who were buzzing about the ring of honor summer of punk people just gravitated towards him because he just had this natural vibe to him he had tremendous in-ring ability his gimmick actually stood out and he was just easy to get behind even if he was being a heel he was that good in 2006 cm punk was in john cena's wrestlemania 22 entrance ironically enough he'd be the one giving the wwe universe to ride up their life in a storyline with john cena just a few years later in that same year he teamed up with dx and the hardy boyz to win his first big wwe match and then punk continued his time in ecw going on a winning streak which eventually ended in early 2007 also in 07 cm punk would find himself making his wrestlemania debut in the money in the bank ladder match but this wasn't his year his year or multiple years were still somewhere down the line eventually the ecw champion which was bobby lashley was drafted over to raw so a tournament was held to crown the new ecw champion in the finals of that tournament was cm punk taking on chris benoit but benoit never made the event because most of us know what happened and he was later replaced by johnny nitro who went on to win the ecw championship for the following three months or so he was chasing the ecw title before eventually beating john morrison and reigning for 143 days but punk eventually lost that title to chavo guerrero at wrestlemania 24 cm punk was in the money in the bank ladder match the punk was still in ecw cm punk went on to win the money in the bank ladder match and he earned himself a world title match at any time he chose fit there it was it looked like cm punk had the backing of higher-ups in wwe at a time where money in the bank actually meant something for stars and it helped them reach the next level of their career even though the talk was that people like vince mcmahon really didn't see much in cm punk but there he was the new mr money in the bank in 2008. three months later cm punk was drafted to raw from ecw the same night that vince fell into the stage good times and just one week after making his way over to raw cm punk cashed in his money in the bank on the world heavyweight champion that being edge shout out to batista and there it was cm punk was now the world heavyweight champion he hadn't won any secondary titles he hadn't even been on raw or smackdown that long but they gave it to him this wasn't anything we foresaw he was on the brink of being released in 2006 and as much as i hate to say it there was still that stigma around indie wrestlers during this time the whole premise of his first title reign was that he was out to prove the doubters wrong everyone thought it was a fluke and wwe didn't do punk much favors even as world champion he took back seats to guys like cena batista undertaker and edge simply because their stories were more interesting and wwe didn't put much behind cm punk obviously this was originally supposed to be jeff hardy's cash in but jeff hardy pulled the jeff hardy so cm punk got it instead so you could kind of tell that they weren't fully invested in his first world title reign he was written off in storyline and lost it without much direction and it's a theme you'll notice in cm punk's title reigns is that there's always something else happening or he just isn't given the green light by management the following year at wrestlemania cm punk won the money in the bank for the second consecutive year and this time he cashed in on jeff hardy for his second world heavyweight championship jeff hardy and cm punk they had an amazing feud which was so personal you had cm punk who was straight edge and then jeff hardy who let his personal demons get to him it was the perfect storm it was during this tuttle rain where punk was presented a lot better he was made to look like a maniacal sicko heel who just simply believed that his way was the right way the feud ended in a loser leaves wwe match where cm punk came out on top he even mocked jeff hardy coming out on smackdown dressed as jeff the momentum was trending upwards until the undertaker popped up no more world title but punk was still better than you how did he want to prove this by forming the straight edge society a group where people could let go of their past and instead believed cm punk's gospel truth during this time he had a personal feud with rey mysterio which went on through the early part of 2010 and it eventually led to cm punk getting his head shaped bald this looks funny man it was around this time where cm punk was in a weird state of flux with this character yeah he had world title reigns and he was an amazing talent but he was directionless after the straight edge society came to an end i don't know why but cm punk sing to aaliyah still haunts me to this day for the last few months of 2010 cm punk did commentary on raw because he had an injured hip he was fun to listen to because the dude's just entertaining but the thing is he's a better wrestler in the ring near the end of 2010 it was a chair shot to john cena that would set up the newest leader of the nexus that being cm punk the thing here was that nexus just lost all their steam at this point as good as cm punk was handing the group over to him and trying to give it a revamp just didn't work they were trying to save a sinking ship with what that group was at the time punk feuded with randy orton leading up to wrestlemania 27 and after that the nexus slowly disbanded without a large falling out or big angle but for punk the best was yet to come in june of 2011 cm punk revealed that his wwe contract was expiring and this was true his contract was used as a storyline element but man we did not expect what this ended up being punk was tired of the backstage politics he felt like he wasn't really going anywhere at that point and it made sense they had gone up and down with him but never fully the green light so in an effort to have punk resign wwe made this real life aspect into a storyline who better to have on the opposite end than the biggest star in the company that being john cena it was during this time that cm punk cut the pipe bomb basically going on a tirade against wwe calling vince mcmahon a bully saying wwe would be better after vince died mocking vince's family mentioning other promotions it had the entire wrestling world talking again the product which felt so pg and diluted so scripted finally had a little bit of edge back into it and cm punk was the one who brought that edge back it's a promo that people still debate whether it was scripted or not but come on i doubt vince would give someone free reins and just let them bash his own company on his own television show the feud picked up more and more momentum and what made it even better was that the climax was going to be in cm punk's hometown of chicago over the coming weeks we had contract signings suspension stipulations all to make the match feel even bigger and it just made punk feel even bigger too he felt like one of if not the biggest star in the industry at that time the buzz was through the roof then came july 17 2011 money in the bank cena versus punk in the main event if cm punk won john cena would be fired and if cm punk won that was it he wasn't resigned to wwe he was taking the most prestigious title in the company with him wherever he went near the end of the match laurenitis and mcmahon try to redo the screwjob finish but punk takes the win and the wwe championship with him he blew vince a kiss goodbye and he was gone from the wwe when that club was striking midnight his contract was over wwe was left without a wwe champion but rey mysterio won the new wwe title only for cena to win it back at the end of the night instead of having punk go away for a large amount of time punk was brought back very quickly and we had a title unification match at summerslam 2011 which punk won then instead of moving forward with punk he was screwed over again because wwe decided to put the title on alberto del rio and derail all of cm punk's momentum that's how many times i've said that now then he got stuck in a feud about text messages and clicks with kevin nash then he lost to triple h at the following months not a champions the whole situation was a complete mess and punk was once again cast aside even though he was the guy who was killing it it was his time he should have just been set to go but wwe decided to make things even more convoluted he regained the world title a few months later but at that point he just wasn't as hot as he was in august of 2011. from here cm punk went on a 434 day wwe championship reign during this reign he had amazing matches with guys like chris jericho daniel bryan and of course john cena i've already covered the 434th zairan in full on this channel so if you want a full in-depth look at that rain go check that video out but the consensus coming out of that rain was that wwe never said here go be the guy when you parallel this with a lot of monstrous title reigns you can see that cm punk just took a backseat to other things that were happening mainly john cena he main invented a handful of pay-per-views in that stretch most of which did involve john cena one more thing was that cm punk was out selling cena in merchandise and there were some talks that punk would be the top face and cena would transition into being a mega heal the thing with this reign was that cm punk just understood when it was time to change things up he turned heal in the middle of this reign aligning with paul heyman and showing that he just understood when things need to change even though it was vince's call because the rock wanted to work a heal he ended up losing this title at the 2013 royal rumble here's where wwe wanted to go with cena rock 2 at wrestlemania 29 cm punk had done the best character work of his career in the span of 2009-2013 it was during this time where things started to really deteriorate in 2013. according to cm punk many of his ideas many of his plans were all completely shot down the shield was cm punk's idea but instead of having chris hero in the group they replaced him with roman reigns and according to punk they basically started to take his ideas and present them as their own they being triple h and vince mcmahon who as i mentioned earlier cm punk didn't have the greatest of relationships with punk was furious that he dropped the title to the rock and he's later even said and i quote explain to me how losing to a 45 year old man that wrestles once a year will make me the hottest heel in the world punk insisted that the match at wrestlemania should have been a triple threat match because he was the one defending his title he was the one that made wrestling fun and he was the one busting his ass for the company and i mean he wasn't wrong the idea was instead shot down and wwe decided to run with cena rock 2 and have punk face the undertaker and in that match punk said it himself he was wrestling with a chip on his shoulder and later on he was told by vince that yeah you should have main evented that was the best match on the show cm punk tore his knee he had a strained acl torn mcl torn meniscus and all punk needed time off and he let that be known that he wasn't able to compete he was fed up with the people screwing him over and over again and not caring for his injuries but he came back and paul heyman turned on cm punk leading to lesnar versus punk at summerslam 2013. we gotta go back to a story punk is told and that is that he was told he's gonna be in this match but again thoughts were running through his mind why why was he in this match he puts over the rock rock leaves he puts over undertaker undertaker leaves well at summerslam 2013 brock lesnar in a barn burner of a match beat cm punk and he also left this led to even more frustration at this point it was basically like all right now you're using me as your whipping boy you already screwed me after my title reign you don't actually care about me the same dude who was your world champion months ago his stock was continually going down punk went alright okay i'm gonna do so good that they cannot deny me my wrestlemania main event the following year because punk wanted his main event for three years at this point so the 2014 royal rumble rolls around and in that match punk gets a concussion he motions over to the doctor and the ref knows so he's thrown out by king ghost of vince has a conversation with him and he tells them this is off screen by the way he says he doesn't love this anymore he says he's hurt he says he's just tired of it he didn't want to do what vince said and in 2011 when cm punk was resigned he thought that vince mcmahon would have made him what he thought he was supposed to be and in punk's mind that was a mega star he didn't even want to win the main event he just wanted the exposure with someone on his level so that he could be an asset to the company and draw punk has said it himself he wanted to make the product better on the day of his wedding with aj lee he was fired he received termination papers in the mail and that was it so according to punk he didn't quit he was fired and then the company went on to say that he quit after punk's departure the wwe crowds would viciously shout his name out they loved this dude after he wasn't a part of wwe the speculation was crazy why did he leave what happened was he gonna come back and that's when the podcast and the rumors continued to grow the concussion vince's inability to keep punk happy it had all reached a boiling point cm punk being away he decided to embark on an mma career he'd always wanted to do this even while he was wrestling he turned towards ufc and he was met with a mixed response and he had a pretty heated interview with michael landsberg i promise not all of us canadians are like this then he went to the ufc and he had two fights one he lost in 2016 to mickey gall and in 2018 he lost to mike jackson then he retired from the mma and he went back into a hobby of his which was comic books with that he did some acting too he remained relatively quiet in the wrestling scene and it had become pretty clear to wrestling fans who had done their research as to why he wasn't coming back to the wwe but fans still kept hope they clung onto that hope so very badly in a weird way he did return to wrestling on wwe backstage but he was contracted by fox tv not by the wwe when he left that show there was a young company on the rise a company which fit all of what cm punk wanted they let characters have freedom and control they let people develop and put on some great stories that company was all elite wrestling and then in the summer of 2021 rumors started to go crazy cm punk would possibly be coming back to pro wrestling but it would be an aew then august 20th 2021 rolls around and after seven years away from pro wrestling he was back in his hometown of chicago to one of the biggest reactions in wrestling history the best in the world was back and the wrestling world rejoiced and that brings us to today he's in aew and he's killing it the matches in aew are countless there's so many stories to tell but i think the one crucial difference is that there's nothing for cm punk to rebel against in aew that's always been his thing i'll let you guys discuss that in the comments but i feel like that's one crucial difference of him going to aew but man what a story cm punk has hat he's a guy who wasn't supposed to get as big as he did he followed his dream he didn't take no for an answer and he won his way into the heart of millions he's easily one of the greats of the industry and in years previous the current and the future he's going to continue to write chapters in this brilliant story and further prove to everyone why he is the best in the world

Channel: SuperkickStudios

Views: 149,828

Keywords: CM Punk, CM Punk Return, CM Punk Career, CM Punk AEW, CM Punk WWE, CM Punk WWE Return, WWE, RAW, Smackdown, NXT, WWE Draft, NXT 2.0, AEW Dynamite, AEW Rampage, Cena vs Punk, Punk 2011, Punk 434, CM Punk UFC, CM Punk Career Story, CM Punk 2021

Id: vrnHl7Y9QAY

Length: 22min 26sec (1346 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 05 2021