10 Ups & 1 Down From AEW Full Gear 2021

3. CM Punk & Eddie Kingston Are The Best

CM Punk
Eddie Kingston

This was perfect.

The glimpses of CM Punk being a right c*nt and actively enjoying it.

The Frye/Takayama sequence.

Eddie just beating the absolute f*ck out of Punk's back on the turnbuckle.

Punk riffing on his much-ribbed "locker room leader" self-proclamations with the John Cena tribute.

CM Punk's new fight shorts, which look cool and taunted Kingston with the smug spectre of his early indie days.

The elements of theatre that proved monumentally entertaining and didn't try to sell this thing as an epic blood rivalry. It wasn't. It was a petty, old grudge that mutated into violence, and that's why Eddie Kingston made a jerk-off gesture after mimicking Punk's GTS taunt. They worked a specific kind of loathing here: an anti-epic strain so much better than most.

The whole thing was just fabulous: two guys who have it in them to be very abrasive personalities expressing that aspect of their personalities with glorious, unbearable smugness and likeable piss-taking, respectively. It was a funny, very brutal fight that never took itself too seriously nor undermined itself. It was the only match these versions of CM Punk and Eddie Kingston could have thought to have.

And it was perfect.

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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!