The Case For CM Punk: Wrestler Of The Year 2022
Graphs are pointing downwards in AEW at present, and many dedicated fans are speaking of an emotional distance between the product they once adored and the Diet version of it that exists today. It remains to be fully seen if ex-communicating the company's top draw in CM Punk following September 4th's drama will arrest or expedite all of this.
Metrics are metrics but measurables for such "awards" as Wrestler Of The Year are, as noted, in the eye of the beholder. As is beauty, which is helpful for CM Punk fans because nobody ever credited his elbow drop with having the grace of Randy Savage's classic finisher. His unique and idiosyncratic style doubled down on the dark arts so hard that he drilled into the sort even the very best practitioners couldn't always locate. On that microphone, in that ring, hell, even on commentary, nobody could touch him. Punk knew what he knew, but knew what you and everybody else knew too, and was better than just about anybody at weaving both together to cast his mesmerising spells.
Punk raged in that scrum about guys not listening to veterans because he grossly misunderstood a point Hangman Page had tried to make in some seminar once, but perhaps a favourite of Jim Ross' applies here and applies best. Punk maximised his minutes, because over just 14 matches he made each one of them count more than literally thousands of ones instantly forgotten by the weekly content super-service churn. He unlocked the secret of being memorable in an era where 630 splashes are barely deemed worthy of a Twitter gif the next day.
Meanwhile, in a wrestling company badly undone by multiple counts of damaging excess, Punk was a wrestler whose only over-delivery was in exquisite narrative detail. His run had measure and poise in a manner increasingly less of anything in AEW was able to harness before or after, and it’s unfortunate that the nature of his exit flew in the face of all of that and invited claims of obvious hypocrisy.
CM Punk totally (and disastrously) misread the room when he thought he was taking a stand in the All Out presser. But a journey through his work has left his biggest supporters wondering if PG Punk has pulled a Piper and changed the questions - what room do we actually want to be in, exactly? Because the one without 2022's Wrestler Of The Year hasn't felt half as fascinating since he left it.