8 Radical Ideas To Save CM Punk

Being the insider industry that it is, full of skulduggery and soap opera intrigue, few things get pro wrestling fans talking more than a good conspiracy theory, and CM Punk is a past master at the art of the work.

MMA fanatics are just beginning to figure out something that pro wrestling fans have known for years: personalities draw, not talent, and both UFC and WWE are in the business of courting the big numbers that come with star power. All of the biggest draws in recent UFC history - Lesnar, Rousey, McGregor - have been larger-than-life personas that people wanted to pay money to see fight.

Punk came into the UFC as the bad guy, the fake pro wrestling champion swanning into a top spot in real fighting, attracting significant heat from MMA fans worldwide. People that didn’t like him - and there were many - were going to tune in to see him get beaten up, to see him put in his place.

And that’s what’s happened: current estimates are that UFC 203 may have attracted impressive buyrates, double or more the likely pull had Punk not been on the card. That’s exactly what Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta were after when they pitched a UFC contract to Punk: a payday.

The thing is, that’s a one-time-only deal. Far fewer people would tune in to see Punk get his clock cleaned again and Punk knows that.

Funnily enough, he’s turned a fair few people around in the last twenty months or so. His positive mental attitude and determination to take the sport seriously and train his ass off got him some unexpectedly excellent press going into UFC 203. The public image Punk carefully nurtured was that of a courageous white meat babyface, bolstered by a generous four-part TV documentary that gave a shine to his sometimes abrasive personality.

It’s helped that he’s been so careful to do everything necessary to distance himself from pro wrestling and all that callow theatricality. In an era where Conor McGregor and others have manipulated the UFC crowd to push buyrates to the moon, Punk’s refusal to ‘sink to that level’ garnered him plenty of grudging respect, appealing to the same hardcore fans that had slated him.

And then there was that inspirational post-fight interview in the octagon: pure eighties Hogan. An MMA crowd who’d never experienced being manipulated by a true babyface promo before were, by and large, blown away. Announcer Mike Goldberg immediately put him over as pure class in defeat, saying “as a father, he’s 100% right”. Message boards and social media were full of similar sentiments.

Has CM Punk been working on a babyface turn for months? Despite being utterly dominated in the fight itself, has he been working on giving Dana White the perfect storyline justification to greenlight a second fight in the UFC? If no one will buy a pay per view to see a heel CM Punk get killed again… will they buy a pay-per-view to see a babyface Punk win?

Factoring in his base salary and likely projected PPV earnings, Punk could be walking away with a cool million dollars for his 2:14 drubbing in the octagon last weekend. Is he looking to match that payday before he retires from professional MMA, to potentially double his fortune?

Far from needing ‘saving’, has the cult of personality worked the world?