Long-Time Lurker posted:

Can a fragile man do this?!

https://twitter.com/skwrestling_/status/1693056362102866121?s=46

1glitch0 posted:

BEST IN THE WORLD

A Fancy Hat posted:

I was trying to go to sleep a few minutes ago and for some reason the enormity of these events finally hit me and I couldn't stop crying. I have no real life friends who give a poo poo about professional wrestling, so this is basically the only place I have to express these feelings, but I really feel the need to express them.

I would like this thread to be about our personal feelings about the fragility of CM Punk, and how it has personally affected us. Just TV-IVing about the details as they come in, or wondering about the Larry’s future, and all of that bullshit has no place here. I need to write about my feelings about CM Punk. Obviously these posts will be mocked elsewhere on the forums, but gently caress em. If you feel the need to say anything, say it.

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CM Punk is a fragile man. Mentally and physically. We will probably never know exactly what he is thinking. Obviously I do not know CM Punk. I never saw him in person and never spoke to him. But he represented something very special to me. In such a cut-throat, dirty, dark, often disgusting, business he was one of the good ones. When people talked poo poo about wrestling and the bastards involved in it, you could always point out CM Punk as the exception to the rule. He was the one you could point to as a true professional who honored the sport he loved, who was passionate about it, who proved that you could dedicate your life to professional wrestling without being insane or scum or a monster. He was the ace in the hole. He was the one who wasn't in it for the pussy or because he was a failed jock in another sport or because he wanted to get rich quick or because he wanted to be a movie star or because he saw wrestling as a means to an end. He was in it for professional wrestling. He was dedicated to being the best professional wrestler he could be, and it showed in the ring, except for when he tried doing a Buckshot Lariat or picking up Samoa Joe or that one time he kinda fell down while fighting Ricky Starks.

I wanted to be a professional wrestler since I was a little kid, and one of the very worst moments of my life was a cold night in San Antonio when I was on the phone to my girlfriend a thousand miles away and finally admitted to myself and to her that coming to Texas to be a wrestler had been a mistake. Coming to grips that I was simply not athletically or charismatically talented enough to be a professional wrestler was one of the worst moments of my life. The business glorifies the boyhood dreams that come true. My boyhood dream wasn't going to come true, and it was an upsetting, soul-crushing revelation that upsets and discourages me to this day.

Since then I lived vicariously through CM Punk in a lot of ways. He wasn't a man who was destined to be an AEW champion. He couldn't wrestle. He wasn't charismatic in the usual way. He was angry. He was doughy. The only thing he had going for him was his work ethic. He wasn't a third generation wrestler. He wasn't physically gifted. He wasn't someone who had words come easy to him. But through sheer effort he was able to become one of the greatest professional wrestlers in history. By 44 years-old.

CM Punk was only forty-four, and he was already a legend on the verge of myth. That's how talented he was, and how respected.

I can't understand how a man could spend weeks and months trying to give back to younger guys like FTR, putting forth the care and effort to give all the women Starbucks gift cards, and that that same man could fight the Young Bucks only weeks later. It doesn't make sense. It shouldn't have happened this way. Not for him, not for Larry, and not for Ace Steel.

CM Punk owed me nothing. But I still feel the loss. I selfishly lived through many of his accomplishments and now feel lost. I can only speak for myself, but I feel that for a lot of us Wednesdays and Saturdays are rocks of stability in a storm of stress and uncertainty. Every week the show goes on. Every week the show is from somewhere new, somewhere in the world, but every week it comes into our homes.

And that will continue. But CM Punk is fragile. And he’s kinda not that great in the ring any more. And whether it be insanity, drugs, or just the actions of a clear-eyed monster, what is done is done. And one of the pillars for the guys backstage and one of the pillars for fans is gone. And everything that pillar held up is tainted and covered in muffin crumbs.

CM Punk is a fragile man. And I don't know how to accept that.

A Fancy Hat posted:

He wasn't a man who was destined to be an AEW champion. He couldn't wrestle. He wasn't charismatic in the usual way. He was angry. He was doughy. He wasn't a third generation wrestler. He wasn't physically gifted.

CM Punk is a fragile man. And I don't know how to accept that.

cagliostr0 posted:

ground and pound techniques borrowed from donkey Kong in smash Brothers.

ChrisBTY posted:

Punk's GTS was lacklustre 10 years ago. What made anybody think Punk could do it to Samoa Joe now?

Prokhor Zakharov posted:

he has the anaconda vise right there, sure it also looks kinda lovely but he's at least guaranteed to not poo poo out a vital organ or turn his grandpa bones to dust attempting it

super macho dude posted:

Shard posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jR3n9Vdg_xE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S66qNZqLM80

StarkRavingMad posted:

I forgot how bad Mickey Gall annihilated him. Like, the Mike Jackson fight was bad because CM Punk's fragile face started pouring blood everywhere, but at no point in the Mickey Gall fight did Punk look like he had any idea what the hell he was doing out there

TheKingslayer posted:

Mike Jackson is a loving G and he still collected more paychecks off UFC after that lol.

Shard posted:

whats the story?

TheKingslayer posted:

UFC ended up trying to give him a punishment fight years later with a prospect who ended up gouging Jackson in the eye, giving Jackson the DQ win. They eventually got him beat up a little but Dana still had to pay out win money to Mike Jackson at least one more time lol.

Shard posted:

Why were they so mad at him?

Shard posted:

Why were they so mad at him?

Chris James 2 posted:

They really cared about giving Punk the fight and were upset/thought Mike didn't take it seriously, which definitely wasn't helped by the pop for weed that came after

They wound up firing him this January despite him having a fight left on his deal, although it may at least partially have had something to do with Jake Shields fighting him at a training facility last month because Jackson called him a Nazi https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2023/01/ufc-news-mike-jackson-released

Chris James 2 posted:

They really cared about giving Punk the fight and were upset/thought Mike didn't take it seriously, which definitely wasn't helped by the pop for weed that came after

They wound up firing him this January despite him having a fight left on his deal, although it may at least partially have had something to do with Jake Shields fighting him at a training facility last month because Jackson called him a Nazi https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2023/01/ufc-news-mike-jackson-released

Prokhor Zakharov posted:

Tony you fuckin nerd I know you're reading this and I need you to understand that you have the opportunity to do the funniest thing that has ever been done in wrestling

Open Marriage Night posted:

Make Mike Jackson the third Young Buck, and watch Punk have a meltdown.

Open Marriage Night posted:

Make Mike Jackson the third Young Buck, and watch Punk have a meltdown.

Eat This Glob posted:

mike jackson, iirc, was mickey gall's hand chosen tomato can to get gall's first professional win against prior to fighting punk. in fact, when the ufc approached him about taking the gall fight, jackson wasn't even fighting anymore, and mike thought they meant come shoot the show, as jackson was now a photographer. anyway, mike filled his role of getting beaten by the young upstart gall, who went on to thrash charles montgomery punkington the third.

the ufc generally gets guys on multi-fight contracts, so they figured that since they were still in the cm punk fight business, why not have the two guys who got their rear end kicked by mickey gall have a scrap? maybe punk won't look so embarrassing if we put him in there against a can who thought he was being approached by a fight promotion to take pictures and not fight.

so, punk and mike jackson have a fist fight. punk is so out of his depth that a mostly retired regional pro could hold him down and attempt punches while refusing to look at his intended punch recipient. mike clowned punk in such a way that many saw it as unsporting. it's like a wrestling sqash when, i dunno, wardlow refuses to pin a guy, but instead of a powerbomb symphony, he'd talk out of his rear end like jim carrey in ace ventura instead of any violence whatsoever and then still refuse to pin the guy when, inexplicably, the rear end-talking was doing damage.

anyway, the ufc was really pissed at mike jackson and dana white said jackson would never fight in the ufc again. well, there's a meme of the polaroid from "memento" that says "don't believe his lies" on it and the pic is of dana white, so of course mike later got another fight. like mike was set-up to lose against gall, there was another fighter the promotion wanted to get a win so they could fast track him to stardom. the fella was a striker from ireland, and if there's anything a red-faced bostonian like dana white likes, it's a guy who is actually from ireland so they threw mike jackson to him. anyway, the irishman poked jackson so hard in the goddamn eye the fight was called off and mike took another win off a guy the ufc wanted to win, in embarassing fashion, after the ufc said the guy would never fight for them again. it is very funny, and very cool to me

Shard posted:

Mike jackson sounds like a cool dude.

Eat This Glob posted:

yeah he rules. the win he had on cm punk was overturned to a no contest because jackson pissed hot for weed, so you know that angered cm punk too

Shard posted:

How is weed supposed to make you a better fighter to the point where you have an unfair advantage over your opponent and a decision should be overturned?

Shard posted:

How is weed supposed to make you a better fighter to the point where you have an unfair advantage over your opponent and a decision should be overturned?