CM Punk: It's Always Something

I've been wrestling (no pun intended) with writing this piece for the better part of a year. I have my reasons. One of them is because I didn't want to waste (at least) 600 words on such a toxic human being. So for a while, I wasn't going to write about this. However, after his latest incident, I had to do it, mainly to call out Punk's bullshit, but also to serve as a long and drawn out "I told you so" to anyone who actually supported Punk's return to AEW earlier this year.

My feelings about Punk have been complicated for over a decade. It dates back to the "pipe bomb" in the summer of 2011. The promo Punk gave that night on WWE's Raw was a shoot, and I'll be honest, I didn't like a lot of the things he said, but I also agreed with a few of them. I was not happy with Punk referring to John Cena and The Rock as ass-kissers, but I was in complete agreement with his words about Vince McMahon and John Laurinaitis, because let's face facts, they're a pair of asswipes. Even though my respect for Punk is lower than his Chicago Blackhawks' Stanley Cup chances (and that's pretty low), I will never disagree with his burial of Vince and "Big Johnny."

Of course, we all know how he left WWE. He abruptly walked out after the Rumble event in 2014, and one statement that stayed with me was when Punk said that he would never be booked like John Cena. Excuse me? You held the WWE Championship for 62 straight weeks! During that run, you beat John Cena every time! All of that and he still had the gall to moan. Oh brother. Even then, as time went by, while I thought about it, I still supported Punk, and was even happy when he joined AEW.

I figured that Punk would be, well, content finally. He was part of WWE's main rival company, he gave a heartfelt promo, and it seemed like he was finally going to act right. Punk eventually got pushed to capture the AEW World Championship, holding the title twice, but after winning the title for the second time, the shit hit the fan again. He got into an altercation with The Elite (Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks), and that led to Punk being out of there. Nearly every report said that Punk was clearly the bad guy in this situation, and with that, the support waned from me. It looked like we wouldn't see Punk again.

Then...Tony Khan announced the addition of a second show for AEW called "Collision." He also announced that the first show would be in Chicago. Oh boy. Right then, I knew what was coming next, and there was the announcement: Punk was returning. Honestly, I was furious with this. Tony Khan was bringing Punk back, that was bad enough. But even worse, his return came in his hometown, and with that safe space, Punk was allowed to further bury The Elite and basically go into Gene Snitsky mode and say that nothing was his fault. That did it with me. We've seen Sasha Banks, Naomi, Thunder Rosa, Ivelisse, and other people of color deemed "difficult" and "crybabies" by White supremacist wrestling fans, yet Punk acts like an asshole 24/7/365, and his fans (the same ones who slander the POCs) and Tony Khan get their Chap Stick ready to kiss his ass.

It was only a matter of time before Punk had another primadonna moment, and lo and behold, All In happened. He bullies Jack Perry backstage prior to the main event between MJF and Adam Cole (BAY BAY), and I just learned that after that altercation, Punk actually threatened to fight Miro, coming after Miro came to Jack Perry's defense. AEW ended up suspending both Punk and Perry, but yeah, TK should have seen this coming.

The bottom line is this. CM Punk is who racists falsely believe Sasha Banks and Naomi are: an outright crybaby and primadonna. I'll go further than that: CM Punk is the wrestling equivalent of Antonio Brown. He might be worse than AB. Even worse, Tony Khan continues to kiss up to Punk and enable him. Even Vince McMahon had the temerity to rip the "Straight Edge" bandaid off, and he's known for enabling assholes. The right thing for Tony Khan to do is fire CM Punk. He's not going to change. He's always going to be an asshole, crybaby, primadonna bully. This latest incident at All In proves it. And here's the thing: Collision was created to separate the real life feuds, yet I've seen Punk still appear at Dynamite a few times, and Punk (a Collision guy) still managed to bully a Dynamite guy in Jack Perry. So that clearly failed.

So yeah, I stopped supporting Punk right when he returned, but I don't know why I'm saying that. I'm just one fan, or to (ironically) borrow from Punk's pipe bomb, "I'm just a spoke on the wheel." I want to say that this is to raise awareness as to the type of person Punk is, but enough people already know. It's only the blind diehards who can't see the forest for the trees when it comes to Punk. They'll learn the dark truth about Punk eventually. It's only a matter of time, especially if Khan doesn't do the right thing and give Punk the pink slip.