12 Wrestlers Whose Ring Names Outlasted Their Gimmicks

Make no mistake: Phil Brooks still is and will always be punk, but that’s not the part of his name that’s gimmicky and outdated. No, I’m talking about the initials “CM”, which don’t stand for Chicago Made or Charles Montgomery, but rather Chick Magnet.

Back in Brooks’s early days in the backyard promotion LWF, he formed the tag team of the Chick Magnets, consisting of Chick Magnet Venom and Chick Magnet Punk. Shortened to CM Punk, Brooks took the name and spent the next two decades building a brand around it - a brand that has crossed over from sports entertainment into the world of comic books and mixed martial arts (with… varying degrees of success). And to think that he only got the name “CM Punk” because CM Venom’s would-be Chick Magnets tag team partner didn’t show up that day.

While Punk hasn’t had a chick magnet persona in wrestling since the Clinton administration, he has dated Lita, Daffney, Beth Phoenix, Maria Kanellis, and others, and married AJ Lee, so he has certainly lived the gimmick.