CM Punk Speaks On Everything Finally

C.M Punk has broken his silence and done it in true C.M Punk fashion appearing on his friend Colt Cabana’s Art of Wrestling Podcast. Before we get into all that was said it should be noted that C.M Punk could have earned a ton of money giving this exclusive interview to anyone. It is the most sought after wrestling interview in the last decade and possibly ever. He did it with his long time friend Colt Cabana for nothing and is going to address his fans and haters a like, taking questions next week on the same podcast. On this fact alone, it is commendable of Punk and kind of serves as proof that this is not about Punk profiting from his story. The things he does say while some are what many have speculated for months as reasons for his leaving have been validated. Some other things that have not seen the light of day until now are truly shocking. It is stated among these revelations the fact that Punk never really quit the company. The truth is he was suspended not long after he walked out the night after the Royal Rumble; he was eventually fired on what was his wedding day to WWE Diva A.J Lee.

To cover everything that was said in this interview would take far to long to write out and likely will be the most reported on interview in wrestling in decades. You really need to seek it out and listen to it yourself to hear it in context. It is almost two hours in length and is truly fascinating to hear how much C.M Punk was going through physically during his time since re-signing to join the company until now. Among them wrestling with concussions, that Punk claims the WWE was in full knowledge of him having. He wrestled in all forms of pain beyond that, from bad knees, to broken ribs among them.

The most shocking of all was Punk had develop a deposit on his back that he brought to the attention of WWE medical staff. He was told it was some form of calcium deposit, which was nothing to worry about moving forward. Despite Punk’s insistence to have it removed, the WWE doctor deemed it unnecessary and instead gave him antibiotics. Punk was asked if the deformity on his back hurt, when he claimed it did not they gave him this medication. It reached a point where it did begin to hurt months later and on the encouragement of his wife, Punk would see her doctor in Florida. This doctor quickly diagnosed that Punk had been walking around with a staph infection for months. This according to the doctor could have been fatal. It was removed and Punk who it should be noted in his life had a fractured skull and had tattoos done on many parts of his body called it worst pain he had ever experienced.

Punk also made it clear that he had been questioning the WWE about the Network based on how it would affect not just his income, but in addition all the other wresters, with no real answers given to him. He claims that he never was given one to the point that he left. This is consistent with an interview he gave to Ariel Helwani just days before his departure from the company. While Punk did have complaints about payoffs for Wrestlemania and other events, it was about simply being paid to the level of other stars that appeared on the shows on his level. He claims John Cena, The Rock, Undertaker, Triple H, and Brock Lesnar all made significantly more than he did on the last Wrestlemania he appeared on Wrestlemania 29.

There was a ton of stuff about booking that was brought up as well including Punk’s desire to make the Mania 29 main event a three-way match with himself, John Cena and The Rock. He also claims that The Shield was in fact his idea to build a faction around him when he was not granted that match and had conceded and agreed to face the Undertaker. Punk’s version of the Shield he pitched include Rollins Ambrose and Chris Hero who he had worked with a ton on independents long before coming to WWE. The WWE was not down with having Hero and wanted Roman Reigns to be the third to which Punk conceded. The plan was for Punk to work programs with each of the Shield coming out of his lose to the Undertaker. WWE changed directions and killed the idea of the Shield being paired with Punk. WWE wanted the Shield to be originally the Big Show, Daniel Bryan and Seth Rollins. Something Punk was not in agreement with and countered with the three names mentioned above.

There is many other stories including how Ryback injured Punk both times working with him. In the TLC match where a Punk and Ryback program was thrown together, he had his ribs broken from a kick from Ryback. When the two would later feud in the build up to Lesnar and Punk he would injury his hip on a table bump in which Ryback threw Punk missing the table entirely and hit the cement floor. Punk suggests that he feels both were deliberate on the part of Ryback and after the second injury, he confronted him and Ryback claimed stupidity rather than it being a deliberate attempt to injury him. 

This only scratches the surface of all that was told. Punk goes into detail on the infamous meeting that night in Cleveland when he walked out where as it had been reported only he, Vince McMahon and Triple H were in the room.

It is without a doubt the most spell binding 90 minutes plus you likely will have heard about his relationship with WWE. This is obviously his version of the story but there is a real truth to it when you go back and piece together what was going on at the various times.

WWE had tried to come to a settlement with Punk on money he was owed to restrict either side from talking about it. Punk denied this based on how he had already being characterized on WWE programming. He did in fact get all the money that he was entitled too and the matter has been settled.

Punk claims based on the way he was fired on his actual wedding day was the final straw on him ever working for the company again. After listening to all the Punk has to say it is hard to imagine why he would ever want to do so. Even if you only consider half of the things Punk claims as facts, it would be enough for many to never desire to work with WWE again. In a wrestling world that is so much based on never say never about people returning this might be the most compelling case to say something is never ever going to happen.

It seems that Punk really wanted to give his true fans an explanation for all that has gone on in the last year and beyond as to why he is gone from the company. If you ever considered yourself a C.M Punk fan and still do not understand why after all he laid out I would personal question if you ever cared about him at all or just loved the wrestling character he played.

The scary thing is there is a real sense of truth to everything that he said and it paints the WWE although he claims it was not his intention in a very negative light. It also casts a very scary picture of the inner workings of the company and makes you wonder if anyone will ever be able to succeed without the WWE’s backing. It puts a great deal of things into prospective.

Punk also briefly talks about the need for a union in wrestling to stand up for the talent something that Vince McMahon has fought long and hard against even dating back to the 80’s. Jessie Ventura at the time had attempted to create one only to be foiled by Hulk Hogan and Vince. Punk’s story is a tale that really cries out for the need for one. Maybe you’re not a C.M Punk fan and think he is a jerk. Still the things that happened to Punk could just as easily happen to your favorite superstar or diva. Which is what makes this story so compelling.

It was the most eye-opening interview I have listened to in 30 plus years of being a wrestling fan. Short of when you come to the realization that wrestling is not real this cuts almost as deep into the ugly business side of this company at the top of the wrestling world.

C.M Punk had the balls to tell the story because he feels he can afford to and doesn’t have to worry about money for the rest of his life. Love him or hate him C.M Punk has always been a guy both in and out of character to speak his mind. On Thanksgiving 2014 in the United States, he did just that.

As I have said consistently the thing I am most happy about is Punk seems truly content and happy with his life and as a fan of this guy that entertained me for years I am happy about that. To listen to all he endured physically and mentally to entertain me makes me love him even more.

So, thank you C.M Punk for everything and allowing your true fans to hear your side of the story. This is not to say that we were owed anything, but so we can now understand it and have some closure to it.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our American readers. Best wishes from our family to yours.

Does Smackdown Even Matter Anymore?

Smackdown is making the move to Thursday night in October, which probably is a good thing, but day of the week is not the major issue with Smackdown. Honestly no matter what day of the week you put it on there needs to be more compelling television and it really is not. When you have already endured 3 hours of Monday Night Raw it makes investing two more hours in Smackdown quite the commitment for the average fan. Add in the fact that Smackdown is a taped show and many sites (Not This One) offer fans spoilers for Smackdown that is taped on Tuesday. Which is a problem that is faced to greater extent by both TNA and Ring of Honor that tape weeks of shows at a time. They face those challenges of spoilers to an even greater extent. The odd time spoilers can be helpful if they offer insight to a great match or angle. However most times they give people the option to seek out the information and decide to skip the show. That is why at least for this site, we have made the decision not to use them to allow you the chance to not have your viewing experience impacted on by us.

The WWE somewhere around 2010 or 11 ended the brand split that they had done in since splitting the brands somewhere around a year or two after WWE bought out WCW in effect ending the promotion and the competition. So the WWE roster became whole again with all of the talent in theory able to perform on Raw or Smackdown. Therefore, the uniqueness of the shows was lost to some extent. Even though it has been well documented that even during the brand split Smackdown was treated as the “B” brand in the WWE.

That had its downside and upside depending on how you looked at it. The major downside was the top people rarely if ever ended up on Smackdown. If a person got hot enough, they would find his way to Raw eventually. The upside was because Smackdown was more or less an after thought in comparison to Raw. It allowed things to happen that likely never would have flown on Raw. One example of that was C.M Punk’s Straight Edge Society. A highly edgy angle was the brainchild of Punk himself. Prior to that, there was the famed “Smackdown 6,” and the brilliant booking and mind of Paul Heyman writing the show. As discussed in the Heyman DVD as far as Heyman was concerned he was competing with Raw and looking to beat it on weekly basis. Something that was the same was the influence of Kevin Dunn in terms of the production of the show. This is something various people had tried to change with no success. They wanted to do this to give Smackdown its own unique look and feel to it. This is something that clearly would have been interesting to see and made the show stand out as something unique. 

On a complete side note when Paul Levesque and Stephanie McMahon truly take over, it is expected one of the first moves they will make is replacing Dunn. That will be an interesting time for WWE as Dunn has been the head of production of WWE television for pretty much the entire history of Raw first going to air followed by Smackdown years later.

The point to all of this is there is truly nothing unique about the Smackdown show to any degree. It does tend to be the more wrestling based show and always has been for the most part. The problem being many of the matches we see on Smackdown will tend make their way to Raw the following week. They rarely want to do angles on Smackdown and any that they do happen to do will be highlighted on Raw to catch the audience of the true flagship program up with what they missed on Smackdown. There is no real punishment to fans for not watching Smackdown at all.

We also now have a brand in NXT that has become what Smackdown use to be to some extent. In the past Smackdown was a proving ground for talent to build up their skills in the ring and on the microphone to a lesser extent. John Cena is perhaps the best example of this it is hard to imagine that the centerpiece that now currently is the face of the company for well over a decade started on what was classed as the “B” show. However, that is what happened and we watched Cena go from being a babyface at first, to transition into his heel rapper persona, only to be so good to become a babyface using that same character. Quickly he would be shifted over to the main show but the foundation that made John Cena what he is today was built on Smackdown. There were other examples of guys that built their career on that show like Edge, Kurt Angle and a list that could go on quite long.  The talent that is learning, growing, and developing their characters are doing that on NXT in Florida now.

The goal needs to be or at least should be is to give some compelling reason to make Smackdown must see television. It is not and has not been for sometime currently.  As we have laid out here that is far from the easiest thing to do because of the evolution of the WWE product in a number of ways. Some might say that Smackdown’s time has come and gone. However, it is not as if the WWE is going to bring an end to Smackdown because it makes money.

I use a pro sports analogy to explain it further to drive this point home. Many older fans of professional sports will say that expansion has watered down the game and there are too many teams. So are professional sports leagues contracting or ever have contracted a franchise in their history? The answer is of course no and in fact a league like the NHL that currently has franchises that are struggling finically are talking about expansion. You see here is that evil thing about all sports and pro wrestling as well it is at the end of the day more about greed and business over the quality of the product you are producing. Quantity that creates cash will always trump the quality of the product that is being produced.

I hate to write things without offering solutions but in terms for this one, I really do not have the answers for this it. In my mind, less is more and the need for Smackdown has really gone away. The reason it was created was a high demand for wrestling content at the absolute peak of its popularity. It was also at a time when Raw was only two hours and there was no NXT let alone a show called Main Event. The WWE is never going to subscribe to the less is more philosophy anymore than the NBA, NHL, NFL or MLB is unless they were forced to do so. Look at what happened to WCW when they created Thunder it became a poor quality show that nobody watched. Only reason it survived was the company that owned WCW also owned the network it was broadcast on.

Ironic that the show named based on one of the most famous names to ever be in wrestling in The Rock has become some what of an after thought which is something it’s namesake never was to this day. If you can’t get enough wrestling in your life it is another two hours to enjoy it, but in the grand scheme of things it is not offering anything that is compelling to people that are casual fans or gives reason for new or former fans of the product to get invested into it. If I wanted to get someone to be invested in wrestling today and could not use a Raw broadcast or a pay per view, I would show them an episode of NXT that has a bunch of hungry people trying to make their way to the bright lights of Raw and the main roster. No one ever has the dream of main eventing Smackdown do they? Of course they don’t, the same way every professional wrestlers ultimate dream is to be on a Wrestlemania or main eventing one, the same is true with television. Raw is the major leagues and everything else is secondary.

FYI there is a chance we may not have our weekly Podcast this week do to some circumstances beyond our control. If there is no Podcast tonight will have one for you next Friday as we normally do. 

 

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