The Self-Destruction Of CM Punk In AEW | Wrestling Timelines
November 13, 2021 - Full Gear
Not all fans share the jubilation surrounding CM Punk’s comeback. Punk, despite the Fish incident, is almost in too good a mood. Where’s the old Punk?
In addition to being the only person having a nice time in the swamp that is Wrestling Twitter, Punk by his own admission is enjoying himself too much. Some weeks on Dynamite, he professes that he wants to come out to the ring with his “game face” on, but admits he can’t do it. He has visibly fallen wildly back in love with professional wrestling. His fictional story is simple and elegant, designed to make the return of the “old”, venomous Punk feel all the more earned.
We’ll get there, but for now, a sweat-soaked Punk is playing an old man waking back up after seven years of slumber. It’s a good bit. Punk’s lack of in-ring conditioning allows him to credibly do the signature AEW back-and-forth TV match, but he’s a veteran smarter than his opponents, fooling them with a simple body slam time and time again. There’s a little bit of ego involved - Punk might be suggesting that he can get a bigger pop doing the easiest move there is in a promotion partly defined by excess - but the arrogance and snark was always part of his charm.
And then he runs into Eddie Kingston.
Punk did say, at the First Dance, that you will see the real CM Punk in time. That time is November 13, 2021.
The build to his war with Eddie Kingston is incredible. It’s a case study in how Punk can elevate the most basic material imaginable. An irate Eddie interrupts Punk’s interview time. In a face-to-face on the following Rampage, CM Punk chides Eddie’s lack of professionalism with the sanctimonious edge of old. Eddie is amazing; as his sarcasm boils over into rage, Punk’s smugness is so overwhelming that Kingston opens his mouth wide enough to attempt to bite his head off. This is the first instance of a theme that defines Punk’s comeback: a feud or confrontation with a wrestler Punk once had legitimate beef with. It’s telling, perhaps, how often it happens.
The Full Gear match is an unbelievable tour de force of pure, pissy hatred. It’s the funniest and nastiest display of two people who simply cannot sanction one another, and at just 10 minutes, it’s one of the most refreshing and best matches of the year. It is unique, special, soulful, magical.
Punk, even by his legendary standards, is reaching incredible professional peaks.
AEW is the promotion he dreamed about when cutting the Pipebomb promo; a changed, idealised WWE under a different name. Everything he seems to want - creative freedom, top billing, and, if whispers are to be believed, a very favourable contract that not everybody is afforded - he gets. Or might get.
So what goes wrong…?