10 Amazing Wrestling Callbacks You Totally Missed

5. CM Punk: Extremely Online

MJF Samoa Joe
AEW

CM Punk, forever an enigma, positions himself as above the childish games of online wrestling circles - and yet haunts social media more than every engagement farm account put together.

The man who used to keep his own LiveJournal was also fond of a shoot interview, and in a famous example conducted alongside Samoa Joe, he told the story of a rib he once played on then-ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky. Mimicking Homicide, Punk called Gabe and pretended that "he" couldn't make Final Battle 2003 because he'd just been offered monster money to stay in Puerto Rico. Even though it was his dream to wrestle Satoshi Kojima, he just couldn't turn it down.

It was a shame. He really wanted to take the lariat!

Punk did this - with an escalating stream of "Lariat! Kojima!" nonsense - because Gabe's hysterical, end-of-the-world conniption fits were the stuff of legend and a source of great amusement within the locker room.

Fast-forward two full decades, and it was Punk who worked Kojima at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2023.

During that match - even in a role well beneath Punk, he was so fantastic at playing the stooging midcard heel - he cornered Satoshi and threw his bicep at him.

All the while, he yelled "Kojima! Lariat! Kojima!"

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!