Punch McLightning posted:

fragile ego, fragile body, weak mind, weak balls

Big Coffin Hunter posted:

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.

Big Coffin Hunter posted:

Big Coffin Hunter posted: