The Best Of The Rest 7.04.08: Volume 49 - CM Punk's Road to the Title

Posted by Alex Mattis on 07.04.2008

Happy 4th of July to all! This week a look at CM Punk and the road to his title victory and the #3 Forgotten Classic! Oh, and the Dark Knight comes out in two weeks... just putting that out there.

I'm 16. I'm browsing the net. This was A. when backyard wrestling was at the peak of its short lived popularity, and B. Right when I first got high speed internet so I was a downloading machine. On some random backyard wrestling website I stumbled upon a clip of "Sick" Nick Mondo giving Homeless Jimmy the Assault Driver off the top of an 18 wheeler. I was stunned by this and instantly wanted to know more about "Sick" Nick. In my research I found out that Mondo wrestled for a company called CZW, they feuded with IWA-MS, there was an upcoming indy company called Ring Of Honor and so on and so forth. When I got tired of all the light tubes and unnecessary violence I looked into this Ring Of Honor company. All I could find at first was Paul London matches. I watched a match he had with EZ Money and his famous street fight with Michael Shane and was hooked on the product. Along I went with my following of ROH and whatever could be downloaded on KaZaa that was ROH I would take. During the process of my lucrative downloading I stumbled across a match between Colt Cabana and a guy named CM Punk. Prior to the match CM Punk went on a tirade about how he was straightedge and because he didn't drink, smoke, etc. he was better than you. It was a fresh gimmick, add on his look and I was very interested by this CM Punk character.

I continued following Ring Of Honor via message boards and such and was one of the guys clamoring non-stop about how great the Raven-Punk feud was and how amazing the Joe-Punk trilogy was. Punk was at the top of ROH, and the independent world for that matter. In late 2004 when Mick Foley began talking about wanting to bring Punk and Joe to the E, I knew there wasn't much to what he was saying but I did begin to wonder if either of the two would make it to a higher platform. Obviously they did seeing as how they are on top of their company's right now. I remember first reading about Punk signing with the E, I believe he was in the middle of a program with Jimmy Rave (which produced some great match by the way). All roads for Punk lead to Death Before Dishonor III and his ROH world title match with Austin Aries. This was believed to have been Punk's final match in Ring Of Honor. CM Punk shocked everyone when he won the match, in effect winning the ROH World title. After the match Punk delivered any excellent promo that took the crowd from loving everything he did to making them want to hang him in the ring. To make matters worse Punk went onto sign his E contract on the ROH world title. He might as well have burned as stack of bibles are far as the ROH fans were concerned. He didn't have the title for long, as he would lose it to James Gibson just 2 months after winning it. After this Punk went on to have his actual final match. It was an emotional goodbye as Punk was defeated in a 2 out of 3 falls match by Colt Cabana.

5 years after seeing my first CM Punk match I saw the first promo Punk cut on ECW a month or so before his debut. It was exciting to see him on E television. His debut was done perfectly. They hyped him up for weeks, they put him against a credible opponent (no pun intended), and they put him in the Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC in front of a crowd who knew exactly who he was. The reaction he got from the crowd may have left those watching at home who may not have been familiar with him saying "well I don't know who he is but he must be good to be getting that kind of a reception." Punk went on looking great on the ECW programming, it was great and refreshing to see a new face like Punk on E programming. He hit some rocky patches when he went a some what of a losing streak, which included him being the first eliminated in the horrendous "Extreme Elimination Chamber." But eventually pulled out ahead and earned a spot in the Money In The Bank ladder match at WrestleMania 23. I knew he had no chance of winning, but it was awesome to see a guy who I had watched wrestling in front of 15 people of DVD make it to WrestleMania performing inform of some 80,000 people. Punk continued to entertain of ECW and would be make appearances on Raw and SmackDown here and there. In late 2007 Punk won the ECW title it what was probably his biggest win in the E at that point. That was until WrestleMania this year when Punk came out of nowhere and won the Money In The Back ladder match. I was convinced that they were going to give it to Kennedy. Punk now possessed one of the most coveted prizes in the E, the Money In The Bank contract. Given the fact that ECW is looked at as a developmental show of sorts, it seemed like inevitable that Punk would be bumped up to one of the main shows. Everyone knew he was ready. I will say I was surprised that he was bumped straight to Raw, I felt that he would most likely have a layover on SmackDown. He was on Raw for a week, and then this happened...


It's pretty cool to see Punk when the title, it's cool to feel like you've watched someone's entire career progression and you watched them finally make it to their ultimate goal. Being an independent fan, it's not that often that we really get to see our favorites win THE big one. The way Vince & Co. look at professional wrestling and the way they run the E doesn't leave much room for guys like Chris Hero, Bryan Danielson, Jimmy Jacobs, The Briscoes, etc. Guys with tremendous talent, but don't fit the build, look, style of the E. But with recent turns of event like Punk's title win and the success of Matt Sydal on ECW, it's a fun and interesting time for the fans of the indy's and what could potentially come of top indy stars.


The Forgotten Classics
Coming down to the final three of the list and this brings us to a match

Forgotten Classic #3: Randy Orton Vs. Chris Benoit - World Title Match
Now you know I had to have Orton in here somewhere. But to be honest any name could have done with this match. It's the story that was told that made this match a classic to me. Many, many elements that hadn't been brought out in the E in a long while were put to use in this match. The build was excellent. Orton won a battle royal to get a shot, while Benoit had had the title for about 6 months and took out all in his way. Going into the match one would assume that Evolution was going to come interfere and attempt to aid Orton. That wasn't the case. This top heel took on a top face in a clean back and forth wrestling match. I wouldn't say that the match was a 5 star classic, but it was still solid match. The ending to this match was one that is not often done in the E, and I'm not sure if it has been done since this match: the heel countered out of the face's finisher, the heel hit his finisher on the face, the heel pinned the face hooked the leg and beat him clean. It's always huge when a heel wins a title by going over the face clean, and the way this match was set up this ending just worked perfectly. To add even more emotion and drama to the match, after the 3 count the face offered the heel his hand for a genuine embrace. Take a look...

There are two reasons this match isn't on many, if any, people's top lists. Obviously the Benoit thing that doesn't really need to be discussed, but the other was that this marked the beginning of Orton's God awful face turn. Like I said though, it wasn't just the performers that made this one it was the story told that made this match.


Well that is all for me this week.

Remember feedback, as always, is welcome at [e-mail] and directly below.

In honor of Punk's title victory I present...
*This Week's YouTube Sendoff*



Everyone take care and I'll see you next week.
(Only two more weeks until The Dark Knight)

-Alex