7 Things We Learned From The Evolution Of CM Punk - The Ground Up

Lets get to the biggest positive seen thus far in The Evolution of CM Punk: this is not the tale of a pro wrestler jumping into mixed martial arts as seen through a pair of rose coloured glasses. This is Punk, warts and all.

What do we mean by that? "The Ground Up" shows Punk struggling in training. It shows him flinching, closing his eyes in the face of an incoming punch (one of the hardest things to learn is getting hit in the face, and really, only time and experience matter in that). This is Punk making mistakes. It's Punk losing every round of his first live sparring session.

The resounding image of this first episode, in fact, is CM Punk tapping out, again and again. Yes, he had some minor success on the canvass - he was able to intelligently defend himself a couple of times and got in some punches from top position once - but in the end, the one thing The Evolution of CM Punk succeeds at is showing how raw Punk was as a fighter starting out.

If the series lives up to its name, of course, over the next few episodes we should see Punk develop and hone his skill set.

One interesting comment from Punk, to coach Duke Roufus - "I don't want to have the mentality that I'm just going to survive."