1. CM Punk Proved That Wrestlers Can Be Intelligent, Family-Oriented and Financially-Savvy Non-Drug Abusers With Principles
It's as if CM Punk grew up reading the dirt sheets and old wrestler biographies, as well as watching every single RF Video shoot interview. It's also as if he worked matches or programs with nearly every single name-brand veteran wrestler still circulating around independent wrestling. As well, it's as if he learned all of the lessons that all of those great wrestlers were able to impart, and decided that he would follow their lessons perfectly. As an independent wrestler working in the IWA Mid-South promotion, Punk watched promoter (and one-time WCW and ECW star) Ian Rotten in the midst of a life decline defined by not saving his money from years of wrestling in major and independent promotions worldwide. IWA Mid-South opens its doors for business as much as they shut them forever. When open, it's a hotbed for wrestling were the wrestlers are paid minimally for maximum output. Probably the idea of ending up like Ian Rotten has was enough to keep him focused on saving what he made for the case of the proverbial rainy day. Or, he definitely watched his friend Joey Mercury deal with multiple issues stemming from drug abuse tied to years of wrestling hard and not properly recuperating from injuries. One of the most touching stories from Punk's DVD is that he actually bought Mercury's home outright after he was unable to maintain rental payments. Though he's purchased his own home in Chicago, the idea of not dealing with what was likely a rising slew of nagging injuries would trigger thoughts of Mercury's travails. As well, he's definitely seen every other top wrestler from the past 30 years not be in his similar financial position and have to stay on too long in the industry and doing irreparable damage to their families and home lives. Consider the following idea. After six years as an independent wrestler, two years in developmental and two more years figuring out how to excel as a TV wrestler, CM Punk spent six years as a top wrestler in WWE. By 2014, he'd finally purchased a home, found a wife (to-be) and lived in his hometown surrounded by people he has been friends with for most of his life. For the average person for whom pro wrestling is a job and not a life, this is enough. Compare CM Punk to say, Hulk Hogan. Hogan spent six years developing his skills in the territorial system and worldwide, reaching the WWF as a "prepared and ready for global acclaim" main eventer by 1983. By 1993, he was a global celebrity with a wife and two children. It's entirely possible that if Hogan had seen wrestling as a job - but not life - and quit when WWE was dealing with steroid scandals, he'd be in a different place right now. Had Hogan had the ability to develop a solid home life around his wife and kids instead of say, spending 21 more years on the road, things may have been different.
Besides having been an independent professional wrestling manager for a decade, Marcus Dowling is a Washington, DC-based writer who has contributed to a plethora of online and print magazines and newspapers writing about music and popular culture over the past 15 years.
