10 Things I Hate About CM Punk
5. He's Not That Bothered About Us
Now, this isn't some gutless quibble about Punk's uneasy relationship with the kind of doorstepping trolls who interrupt him at inappropriate times to demand conversation, pictures or autographs.
Im with him on that: I dislike the kind of entitled idiot that believes that pro wrestlers or any other kind of entertainer owe them their full attention. If you bought a Punk t-shirt back in the day, then you handed over money for an item of clothing. You didnt buy shares in CM Punk Ltd, and you certainly didnt help make him rich, or pay for his house, or any of the nonsense that people tend to spout.
No, this is a comment on Punks attitude to the fans at all times, and throughout his career. Ive read far more CM Punk interviews over the last dozen or so years than most, and noticeable by its absence was any real acknowledgement of the fans, or that hes in the entertainment business. Hed talk a great game about ambition, about his goals, about paying your dues and respect and the business and practice of wrestling itself but not about the people he was wrestling in front of.
CM Punk may have loved professional wrestling, and theres no doubt that he knew how to work a crowd. Beyond that, theres little indication that he was interested in his fanbase. Hes just not that guy. Pro wrestling fans were a means to an end to him, and that end seems to have been about proving himself right and everyone else wrong. Entertaining fans across the world seems to have been more of a grudging by-product of that ambition.