With the buzz of the wrestling team running around the storyline on Smackdown, in which the current World Heavyweight Champion, CM Punk, is turning into a full-blown heel with his “incredible” actions against Jeff Hardy, it totally had me getting Punk’s flashbacks. He returned to his past role as a bad guy killer in his former home Ring of Honor team in 2005. I know that fans of true hardcore wrestling may already know about it, but for those who don’t know about it or even hell for them. who I’ve already experienced, I just wanted to revisit the multi-week “Punk Heel” saga in a big way and talk about how it might be one of the best heel turns ever made in recent memory.
To begin this story, CM Punk was a typical heel in ROH initially with the standard “The Second City Saints” stable (with Ace Steel and his close friend Colt Cabana). After this group started with some other well-known heel stables (such as The Next Generation and The Legation), Punk slowly and naturally turned into the default face. So in 2005, with an offer to work for WWE and a strong crowd following (because of his face turn and match of star performances with his “Match of the Year” candidate against Samoa Joe), Punk entered the lineup the next night in ROH against his rival Austin Aries for the ROH Championship at “Death Before Dishonor 3”. And the way they go about it in a company is that they usually end up losing someone in a horrendously dramatic fashion. So with that in mind, it was supposed to be here in Punk’s move yesterday that Aries would take it to the extreme, almost taking the belt that he had been looking for for a long time in the “last” match, only to barely lose it and then cheered on the fans. good bye But unexpectedly and unfaithfully, Punk also won the belt. As the fans stood from their seats cheering their hearts out for their favorite moment, Punk thanked the crowd and then proceeded to cut arguably one of the best heel promos ever;
“This belt in the hands of another man is only a belt. In the hands it becomes power. Like this microphone, there is a microphone on the back of each of the children. It is in the hands of the most dangerous man like me and it becomes a pipe bomb. But I simply say /a> connected and formed into sentences very loosely. What I say and what I say become antiphons!”>time to tell you all a little story here today. It is a parable of sorts.
Once upon a time there was a man The greatest devil ever made you a people who were not. And now you are looking for him. I am the devil himself! And all the foolish and mad men fell for him!”
As the crowd slowly noticed that Punk had suddenly turned heel, Punk began to claim that he was taking the WWE belt with him and heavily taunted the audience that this would be the last time they would see him and the ROH World Title. As he was leaving, Christopher Daniels (who was then in TNA and returned to ROH) came to the ring and challenged Punk for the belt right then and there. Punk then went through The crowd continues to run away, as they look heavily pissed that Punk has left ROH with the belt. What followed was two months of the best wrestling I’ve ever seen, which involved Punk tight on the World Title and investigates everyone’s search and tries to get it from around the waist. Let’s cover what happened in the last 2 months and why the very evil Punk made them so good.
In the next major match two weeks later at “Sign of Disgrace”, Punk came out looking horribly bad for a business suit with the ROH World Title in hand to many “F@ck You” from the crowd. The man proceeded to cut yet another killer heel promo about how he felt people like Samoa Joe and Christopher Daniels “left” ROH even by working for TNA and that he would eventually do the same by taking the ROH belt. WWE is again “yesterday” with ROH (as he once again claimed to the crowd). Punk then did some more heel things to “sign” his WWE contact over the ROH Title and later in the main event they shouted at the open challengers by naming (and teasing the crowd with the entrance music) some very popular but temporarily out of commission wrestlers such as Bryan Danielson, Belgian Ki and the Briscoe brothers. After Mick Foley (on the ROH show… Mick Foley is pretty amazing… Mick) came out and dropped some hilarious and unusual “F-bombs” on Punk (Read Punk’s business suit: “You looked f@cking funny!” ) Jay Lethal He went out and then infamously lost to Punk in his attempt to get the belt back. So once again, this was “Punk Yesterday” and he got away with the belt. As you’ll see in this storyline here, the crowd in the audience and the people watching the ROH DVDs (without reading the spoilers of course) had no idea when Punk was with him last night. Honestly, everyone was watching the show not knowing if Punk would leave with the belt taken or if someone would be able to dethrone him and defend the honor of the ROH World Title. I knew about the story from reading the DVDs online, but I didn’t choose to read the spoilers so that I could enjoy it even more knowing what happened.
Now with people like James Gibson (aka Jamie Noble in WWE), Christopher Daniels, and Samoa Joe gunning for Punk for the title and the title, Punk continued to act like he was a piece of shit and continuously talked bigger shit to every crowd he saw. In “Escape From New York”, Punk came out in “supervillian-style” to the crowd through a dark arena, bowing and chanting “CM Pussy!!!” claiming that he would not defend the title that night due to the “unprofessional” behavior shown, Foley came out again and convinced Punk to hang the belt on the line from the podium, and Punk defeated Roderick the Strong. roll-up to escape AGAIN with the ROH Title from his “last night”. Then during “Fate of the Angel”, Punk again got the crowd into a frenzy, stabbing his main event opponent James Gibson (Punk is back, another night against him). chain early in the night, and later defeated him in a big match to… guess what… once he “leaves” ROH with the belt in hand. When the next show titled “Homecoming” came up and it was announced that Punk would once again defend the belt against his husband Christopher Daniels, who first challenged Punk for the belt and won it the first time. after that, fans (and himself) pretty much thought that Fallen Angel would be the one to finally take the strap from Punk. So after an awfully close match that went all the way to the 60-minute limit (which I and certainly others didn’t see coming), Punk belt after time flowed. After weeks of being blasted by the announcers (and Punk himself) as if Punk had been killed “overnight”, perhaps this may seem like the case. But then it was finally announced that Punk would be leaving after two shows with another “Redemption”.
In this event, Punk had to defend his title in a four-way elimination match against his longtime enemies in the last few weeks in Daniels, Gibson, and Samoa Joe, who did not get a one-on-one. against Punk for the belt and was thought to be the one to possibly beat Punk in this match. An excellent back and forth match (easily the best of this World Title series), James Gibson (again aka Jamie Noble.. .the guy who used to be the WWE Cruiserweight Champion and “lived in a trailer park” during his storyline) surprises everyone and makes a dramatic comeback to finally dethrone Punk and win his first ROH Championship. Even through all the hype about Gibson getting big wins, the fans didn’t forget to turn around and start thanking Punk for the fight and prepping for the next night with the company. Then, seriously, the night before that night now properly titled “Punk: The Final Chapter”, CM Punk pulled a full 360 and went face-first again when he stepped out to the ring. the most emotional scene I’ve seen in wrestling with the fans screaming Punk’s name is throwing sick steamers in the ring and Punk showing up to live screaming his cause. After a 2 out of 3 match against his best friend, Colt Cabana, Punk was greeted in the back room and cheered by the fans. So after weeks of heavy-handed meowing and fan ire with his super-heelish antics, it was a great show to give those same people a proper send-off for all the great work he’s done during his stay in ROH.
If you’ve been watching Punk’s heel turn in WWE for the last few weeks and haven’t seen this run here, do yourself a favor and watch them today. Hell, even if you’ve already had it, you have to watch it again to recall it. An incredible amount of heat has been created in just a few weeks for Punk being a heel, something that some other wrestlers only want to do throughout their careers. To convince you to go from the biggest face in the world with your supporters “last match” to the last minutes of the mega-kick is just a true madman’s art. I have never seen such a huge heel so successfully without real curls. I wish I could find some video to show here to do justice to what Punk did as a sick kick, but seriously if you haven’t seen it yet, go out and watch each and every one of these shows. Here’s hoping Punk’s latest turn is at least as good or better than this one.
