If you watch professional wrestling, the real gold is when you can’t tell truth from fiction. With wrestling, we all know the outcomes are predetermined, and sometimes the most hated of rivals can be the closest of friends. The beauty of the business is getting us, the audience, to believe that something what we’re seeing just might be real, and not part of the ongoing storytelling.
In the business, it’s called a shoot, and few shoot harder and straighter than CM Punk.
Throughout his mainstream career in both WWE and AEW, Punk’s gift for telling the audience how he sees the wrestling world has garnered him lovers and haters, accolades and criticism. His latest “pipebomb” went down on WWE Monday Night Raw, where he addressed his WrestleMania 42 opponent, Roman Reigns, before turning his mic against The Rock, Vince McMahon, Pat McAfee, and WWE’s parent company, TKO and its boss, Ari Emmanuel.
While his Roman Reigns comments felt part of the build to their ongoing Sunday night ‘Mania event, it was the shot he fired at the others that felt like Punk was going off the cuff, being real, and saying what he and many, many fans are thinking. They call these Punk promos “pipebombs” because this is where CM Punk, the wrestler, and Phil Brooks, the man, blur the lines.
Punk’s promo demonstrated the verbal, thoughtful skills that have made him one of the most beloved wrestlers in the history of the business. Punk is often referred to as the Voice of the Voiceless, by himself and observers, and when he stared into the camera on Monday night and told TKO to lower the prices on the not-yet sold-out WrestleMania, he was talking for the fans and families who can’t afford to go to the biggest shows of the year. Pricing out fans has been one of the biggest topics of conversation over the past year. While WWE has been on a hot streak, the sellouts and the heat have started to wane. This happens when a family of four can’t afford to go to a show. Whether you believe these comments from CM Punk were part of the script or a surprise to Paul Levesque and the folks in the back, they were true.
Punk also took on the sudden “shoehorning” of former NFL player and frequent WWE commentator Pat McAfee into the WrestleMania Saturday night main event picture that sees WWE Undisputed Champion Cody Rhodes taking on Randy Orton. While that duo has 20 years of history that makes their match compelling, on Friday Night SmackDown, McAfee arrived unannounced, kicked Rhodes in the balls, aligned himself with Orton, and proceeded to run down the current WWE business. It was a strange and unnecessary decision that won’t sell a single ticket to WrestleMania, one reportedly made by TKO’s Ari Emmanuel, who also happens to be McAfee’s agent. Punk called out both Emmanuel and the Trump-adjacent “MAGAfee” and said that many fans, along with reportedly many talents, are feeling frustration.
I’ve watched CM Punk’s promo a few times now, and as a fan of his work, I find it consistently compelling as I think, “Oh, they must have known he’d say that.” But by all accounts, nobody knew what CM Punk was going to say, only that he was going to drop another pipebomb. Whatever the truth is, once again, the lines between fact and fiction in pro wrestling were blurred.
Now let’s see if they lower those ticket prices.
