CM Punk is a hypocrite, but you already knew that.
I’ve written for years that CM Punk is egotistical, self-centered, and generally a jerk. I’ve also always said that he’s a talented jerk, and he has a fan base that undoubtedly makes him a star. In an era where the brand is often marketed a head of individual talent, CM Punk is one of the very few money-drawing stars that can move the needle based on his name value alone.
We saw in his initial WWE run that when the spotlight was on him, he was content to allow the WWE machine to promote him. When he was passed over for a bigger star like The Rock, he threw a temper tantrum under the guise of waning to make wrestling better. Sure, the real-life Phil Brooks wants to make the sports entertainment industry better as long as it benefits him in the process. That’s not to say that he didn’t have a point in the early 2010s when Vince McMahon fumbled the ball with the original pipe bomb promo, and of course, Triple H had to pin him on pay-per-view just to make sure the message was sent that the office was ultimately in control.
Still, that doesn’t make his crusade as a supposed martyr any less phony.
His rocky tenure in All Elite Wrestling proved just as much about him. There were seven years away from the business, a completely different company, and he was largely given the freedom to do whatever he wanted, including run his own Saturday show, where he had the power to determine who could or couldn’t be on the program.
That sort of nepotism sounds like something Triple H or Vince would’ve done in 2014, doesn’t it?
Make no mistake about it, CM Punk ultimately didn’t work out in All Elite Wrestling because the place is a vanity project that has the primary objective of allowing Tony Khan to play promoter, not draw money. The Young Bucks might be great guys as real-life people, but as pro wrestlers they are fragile and immature. The same can be said about Jack Perry, but that’s a different discussion for a different time. For as much as Phil Brooks claimed that he wanted to improve pro wrestling, his total burial of the organization at a press conference, and the backstage fight that followed it, more or less can be used as a footnote in the history of the promotion that started its current decline, a slide that it may or may not truly recover from. Punk aired his dirty laundry in public, he allowed the audience to see that the alternative wasn’t what it appeared to be, and thus the audience reconsidered if they were truly investing in the future of the business through their ticket and PPV purchases, or if they were indulging someone’s aspirations to play Vince McMahon. The All Out incident created a domino effect, as backstage fights, disputes with talent, and an overall lack of structure created a negative perception that the organization still deals with today.
CM Punk was involved in two backstage fights and injured most of the two years that he spent under contract to Tony Khan. Granted, The Young Bucks should’ve been smart enough to put their personal problems aside and work with Punk to draw the biggest money possible for the organization, but they didn’t have to because the goal of AEW isn’t to draw money. Still, that doesn’t change the fact that the entire point of the pro wrestling business is to make the most money possible, and if The Bucks were truly professionals, they would’ve been willing to work with him. Ironically, Punk walking out of WWE in 2014 wasn’t the most professional choice either.
In an example of how insincere Punk is, when he was put on ice by Tony Khan following the original backstage fight, he implied on social media that he would work with The Bucks again. Burying the hatchet is an option when it casts him in a good light. When he was recovering from triceps surgery at the time, he visited backstage when TNA held a set of tapings in Chicago, and even made a brief visit backstage at Raw when the show was held there. There’s no doubt that this was a way to let Tony Khan know that he would’ve theoretically had options to work elsewhere if he couldn’t come to an agreement with AEW.
His first night back in the organization on the newly-launched Collision show in June of 2023, he got on the mic and took a few cheap shots at The Elite stable, proving that he’s ultimately as immature as they are in terms of putting disputes aside to do business. The fight with Jack Perry two months later was because Perry is a dummy with no concept of proper business or the sport, which is a shame because he’s very talented, but is too narrow-minded to realize his potential as a performer. Regardless, the incident was the second fight that Punk had so what else was Tony going to do? Obviously, his claim of “fearing for his life” after Punk slapped Perry was legal nonsense to protect the company, but realistically, there was no way Phil Brooks could work there.
His return to the WWE was probably out of spite more than anything else, but from the WWE side, they were on an upswing in terms of revenue, and adding CM Punk back to the roster added star power to the brand, which became even more important after the Netflix deal. Management also knew that they had the leverage, either Phil Brooks was going to work within the system or he was going to leave the most money that he could make as a wrestler on the table because All Elite wasn’t an option for him. Of course, Punk fell in line because he knew that the WWE was going to be the place that he could make the cash and reignite his career. He wasn’t going to go back to the indy circuit just for the love of the game, no should he. Again, sports entertainment is about making the money and WWE was only company where he was going to make similar money to what he made in AEW.
Some will claim that people grow and evolve, but let’s keep in mind, he re-signed with the WWE three months after he smacked Jack Perry in Wembley Stadium. Did he really have some extensive metamorphosis over the course of just a few months?
This is taking nothing away from the fact that his WWE run has been tremendously entertaining, as he contributed to the shows even when he was recovering from another triceps injury. He’s one of the biggest stars on the roster, and before it concludes, this current run might be considered bigger than his first stint in the organization.
That being said, his apology to Saudi Arabia and The Miz, who he previously apologized to when he visited Raw a few years ago, during a press event ahead of this afternoon’s Night of Champions pay-per-view is more proof that his act as a martyr is more of a work than the match he’s going to have with John Cena at the show. Granted, The Miz probably deserved the apology, as the tweet that Punk posted years ago seemingly knocked him for no apparent reason.
However, and this is the much bigger point to be made from this entire situation, if CM Punk wanted to stand up against the “blood money” that he criticized The Miz for taking, he wouldn’t have been at the press event in the first place. Let’s not forget, the only reason that the Saudi government invested hundreds of millions of dollars in oil money into this propaganda strategy to bring western entertainment to the region was because of the criticism of the treatment of women and the actions of the government, including the murder of journalist, Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. The WWE events, boxing and golf are nothing more than an attempt spin the narrative of the country. So, it’s okay for Phil Brooks to take the blood money as long as it goes in his pocket?
Obviously, the citizens of Saudi Arabia aren’t to blame for the government’s corruption, but keep in mind, the Saudi government, the same government that killed Jamal Khashoggi, paid for the WWE to bring the pay-per-view to the country. If Punk would’ve refused to go, he would’ve stood behind his supposed objections to the corruption of the government, but he’s there to perform for those same government officials because of the amount of money that they offered the WWE.
CM Punk is a hypocrite, but you already knew that.
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Until next week
-Jim LaMotta
Email [email protected] | You can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, & Threads @jimlamotta89
