- 07/16/2008 (11:28:27 am)
- Joe Babinsack
….
Lunatic Wrestling Federation, through his stints in IWA: Mid-South, Full Impact Pro, Ring of Honor and the WWE’s one time farm system called Ohio Valley Wrestling, Punk has pounded the pavement and the canvas and has put on his own style of professional wrestling for a decade.
And he has reached the top of the ladder.
Well, he did that at Wrestlemania XXIV, winning the WWE’s annual Money in the Bank Match by grabbing the contract laden suitcase situated high above the ring. That contract gives the winner a title shot over the ensuing calendar year. That match had previously launched the full fledged heel career of Edge, whom CM Punk ironically defeated for his share of the WWE’s top crowns.
Sure, Punk won the title with more than a little help from Batista. With Edge and Batista locked in a blood-feud that spilled over to the Raw Brand, a battle ensued and Batista pretty much destroyed Edge in a outside-the-ropes situation. CM Punk played the opportunist, much like Edge had done previously in defeating the Undertaker.
But holding a title belt is far more important than how you win it.
Punk quickly defended the belt against John Bradshaw Layfield (JBL) and proved that he was no fluke champion. He will have to defend the belt against his erstwhile accomplice, Batista, at the upcoming Great American Bash PPV on July 20. That’s a week away!
But who is CM Punk? What does he stand for?
For years, the man has been known at the top of the independent pro wrestling scene, and the rap against him was that he did not wrestle in the WWE style, the one honed by perennial champ HHH. While it is easy to call all pro wrestling one and the same, those who follow the sport know the differences, the nuances and the art craft of the talent practicing it.
With Punk at the top of one of the WWE’s major professional wrestling brands, he does open up some room for debate. Can the WWE transition into a different style of wrestling, one that is a little faster, a little more involved in the holds and a lot more intricate (and different, psychologically) in the storytelling of a match? For years the likes of HHH and the WWE brass have railed against those differences.
Now, they obviously are not so sure.
Despite the years of toiling in the top independent promotions, and a few years in the WWE farm system, and some public knocks and some obvious dog house periods, CM Punk has finally risen to the top of the food chain.
How long he stays remains to be seen, but his presence is one of great change.
And it seems to have happened to a guy who can be lauded for his lifestyle. The Straight Edge punk movement is a somewhat strange offshoot of the otherwise hardcore, rebellious and often disdained (and disdainful) Punk culture. Straight Edge means no alcohol, no drugs and an attitude the defies using such props to be cool.
CM Punk, sporting a Pepsi logo tattoo, and GI Joe imagery as well, with taped up fists marked with X’s and with a pro wrestling sensibility that takes from Japanese stars as much as American styles, is the foremost proponent of the Straight Edge Lifestyle. In the funny world that is professional wrestling, this would have made him quite the heel over the past decade, especially lined up against beer-swilling Stone Cold Steve Austin, or the overmuscled faces and favorites that the WWE tends to push as stars.
Actually, that avoidance of beer drinking has put CM punk in bad light among his peers and his employers.
But regardless, when someone shows the attitude and persistence to strive and thrive as a nonconformist, it tends to get people’s attention: even the attention of a boss otherwise indifferent, let alone disdainful, of such intransigence.
Is CM Punk the greatest wrestler known to man? Time will tell if he can rise to such honors. For now, he fights with a determination and a talent that many have tested and questioned over the years, but few can knock, and now, fewer can challenge as being worthy.
There are two cool moves associated with Punk over the years: the first being the Pepsi Plunge, and the second being the GTS.
The Plunge is a throwback to the old Pepsi commercials, where people fell backwards into big pools of water. Punk would do the same on an opponent lying in the ring (or out of it!) and he’d fall from the top of the turnbuckle.
The GTS is a nod to a great Japanese pro wrestler by the name of KENTA, who invented the move that is actually called the Go To Sleep. In the move, the opponent is hoisted above the wrestler’s shoulders in a fireman’s carry, and then dropped down, face first, into the wrestler’s knee. (think of an atomic drop, configured to do maximum damage on someone’s face, not their behind.)
It is an impressive move and an impressive finisher in a world that is now torn between the realities of MMA and the outlandishness of pro wrestling.
If you want to see a great DVD of CM Punk in action, before he was made to conform, to some degree to the rigors of the WWE, you can buy this DVD:
Some of the matches go a lot longer than you’d expect, if you are a mainstream pro wrestling fan. But after seeing CM Punk in action, I’m hoping – and expecting – that you’ll have a new found appreciation for the evolution of the entertainment artform that is professional wrestling. And if you like that, keep coming back to promotions like Full Impact Pro, Ring of Honor and other alternatives to the World Wrestling Entertainment domination.
I think you’ll find that they are equally entertaining, and more so, offer a better variety of styles and talents. But the hope here is that CM Punk (as WWE Champion) becomes a gateway to bigger and better things, both for his own career, and for the promotions that spawned his talent and made his style one that can, and should, be emulated by the greats of the business.
Joe Babinsack can be reached at [email protected]. Books to review and a book project to peddle (anyone interested in reading Bruno Sammartino’s revised autobiography?) And a lot of DVD’s on the pile as well.
