Let me start by saying that if you are a cash-paying fan of the WWE, you can do whatever you want at their events as long as you’re not hurting anybody. The title of this article is just supposed to be an ironic jab at the click-bait articles that try to pull you in and make you feel like you’re learning something new and interesting when in actual fact, nine times out of ten you’re just hearing someone’s opinion. Or worse, you’re reading the half-assed words of a guy just trying to make a quick buck from the number of reads he gets on a poorly-written, money-grabbing article. But you don’t have to worry about that with me, I ain’t getting paid for this shit.
Let’s backtrack a little bit. This week, Monday Night Raw hailed from the Allstate Arena in Chicago, Illinois, a city synonymous with extraordinary wrestling crowds, mostly because they’re loud and passionate and know what they want, which for the most part is a great quality.
But one thing that every member of the Internet Wrestling Community should know by now is that Chicago is also home to one of the best damn technical wrestlers, promo-cutters and world champions in the history of World Wrestling Entertainment, CM Punk. If you’re new to the world of wrestling, firstly, welcome to the community, hopefully it’s been an enjoyable experience thus far. Secondly, CM Punk is one of the longest-reigning WWE Champions in company history, from November 2011 to January 2013.
I even had the privilege of seeing him defend that very championship from minor house shows where you know the title isn’t changing hands, to a televised episode of Monday Night Raw where the prospect is unlikely, but a title-change isn’t completely out of the question, to the grandeur and showcase that was WrestleMania 28, where Punk defended the title against Chris Jericho in an emotional and well-fought match.
But sadly, CM Punk wrestled his last match in the 2014 Royal Rumble, after which he couldn’t bring himself to continue, whether that was due to a staph infection, a hectic WWE schedule or Punk’s disdain for not being booked in the main event of WrestleMania 30. That one’s down to who you want to believe, I’m afraid.
It’s now known that CM Punk, who has been keeping himself busy writing comics and the like, has decided to pursue an interest he’s had for several years, and so he’s officially signed a contract with UFC to begin what could be a long or short career in mixed martial arts, likely depending on how his first few fights turn out. From what I saw in a video this week, he is taking his training very seriously and he’s looking very prepared to give this new career opportunity his best shot.
But for the longest time, certain WWE crowds, specifically in smark-heavy cities, would endlessly chant “C-M-Punk, C-M-Punk, C-M-Punk” to express their frustration at the aptly named ‘Best in the World’ having supposedly turned his back on the company. And there comes a point when chanting his name did more harm than good.
The biggest example of that comes from just about anything AJ Lee did in 2014. For simply being married to him, a good portion of AJ’s fantastic work was ruined by fans chanting for a man who wouldn’t have been involved in her segments anyway. She was too good not to be treated with respect, and I hope she’s enjoying married life.
There was a while where I thought the “C-M-Punk” chants had died out, but in typical Chicago fashion, the fans last Monday just couldn’t go the night without bringing his name into play. During Sheamus and Roman Reigns’ match for the second straight Raw in a row, the fans seemed to quickly lose interest and chant for the Second City Saint.
You don’t have to like Roman Reigns or Sheamus. Personally, I like them both, despite having varying opinions of Reigns in the past. Right now I think they’re both fantastic, tough, hard-hitting performers, and disliking them because they’re not indie darlings who wrestled 60-minute ironman matches every week before coming to the WWE seems ridiculous to me.
But regardless of your dislike for them, you should really show respect to the people in the ring. They weren’t having a bad match, in fact I think they have good chemistry together. I definitely prefer this flavour to seeing Sheamus vs. Randy Orton for the umpteenth time, which will inevitably happen at Battleground.
And don’t get me wrong, there have been times where chanting for random superstars during a match has done a lot of good. I was there for the inception of the Yes Movement the night after WrestleMania 28, and I am very proud that the fans were the catalyst for Daniel Bryan’s eventual rise to the top. It was also great during the disappointing Raw main event after this year’s WrestleMania, where the fans would chant for several stars from NXT.
But in this scenario, there is no winner. There are only losers. CM Punk appears to be happy where he is, so if you really think chanting his name will bring him back, then you clearly don’t respect his happiness. What’s the deal, he’s not entertaining you every week, so you don’t care if he’s enjoying life or not?
And how would you feel if you worked your ass off day and night to climb the ladder in the ranks of WWE, only for people to chant for a man who doesn’t even work there during your matches? You aren’t providing constructive criticism, you are merely offering a heaping hand of disrespect to some of the people who will inevitably hold strong in the main event scene for the next few years. You’re not funny, you’re not cool, and you are making a complete idiot of yourself.
I understand that a lot of fans want CM Punk to come back. I for one believe that CM Punk was born to be a professional wrestler. He’s one of the very best I’ve seen perform between those ropes, and if the choice was mine to have CM Punk willingly go back to WWE or pursue a career in UFC, I would 100% choose WWE, where I know he can excel.
Once again, don’t get me wrong. I have the utmost respect for MMA fighters and fans of the sport. As a life-long fan of professional wrestling, it would be incredibly hypocritical of me to harbour any resentment for a sport, just because I’m not an avid fan of it myself. I’ve had to deal with people accusing my favourite form of entertainment of being “fake and gay” ever since I was a child. Over time, you simply come to realise that not everyone can comprehend the artistic nature of it, you can’t please everyone, so why bother getting upset when someone puts down the thing you’re passionate about? At the end of the day, they’re the ones missing out, because they can’t see the beauty in it.
And why would I wish that sort of verbal abuse on anyone else anyway? Not only that, but countless wrestlers that have come and gone have had a background in mixed martial arts, so it wouldn’t make sense for me to ridicule any of the sport’s followers. And I’m also not going to pretend to know about UFC just for the sake of putting out an article somewhat relating to it.
All I know is that Brock Lesnar absolutely decimated the competition when he went there from WWE, Ronda Rousey is a fighting machine and dismantles everyone she sets foot in the octagon with, there’s a fellow Irishman named Conor McGregor who has been lighting the company ablaze lately and a lot of people in my home country are jumping on the proverbial bandwagon just to see him kick ass, and finally, CM Punk has caught the UFC fever and is currently gearing up for his first fight with the company.
I appreciate the sport of MMA, but as a wrestling fan, I would obviously prefer CM Punk to want to wrestle again. But I know that’s not a possibility right now. It’s his decision, and there’s a contract with his name on it to prove it. He’s made his choice, and both CM Punk and the WWE have opted to move forward in separate directions. I for one wish Punk the very best of luck in his first few fights, and hope he does succeed.
It’s time to move on, guys. We can go back and watch Punk’s countless classic matches, from WWE, Ring of Honor or any promotion he graced with his presence. But going forward, out of respect for CM Punk, and any competitors in the WWE, the chants need to end. Or you can ignore this article completely, go back to chanting his name and exercise the free speech that always comes with being a wrestling fan with internet access. It’s up to you.
That’ll do for this week, folks. If you enjoyed this piece, do me a solid and share it on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, tumblr, Myspace, whatever form of communication you can think of. You can also join the conversation in the comments below.
Finally, if you want to talk to me about wrestling, my writing or anything at all, you can do so by following me on Twitter @AdamOB_UTS.
Thanks for reading, and I’ll be back later this week with my predictions for Sunday’s WWE Battleground!
Self-Professed Conversational Wizard.
Admin, Editor and Writer for SLTD Wrestling.
Creator of 'Under the Spotlight'.
Studying Computing in Games Development.
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