It's been a wild ride in the world of professional wrestling over the past weekend. Part of me wanted to go into tonight's Dynamite. The problem with that is, the show kinda sucked. So, instead, can we talk some more about CM Punk's return last Friday?
The last seven years weren't particularly great for Chick Magnet Punk. He worked with a giant cyst, WWE kept trotting him out there, he woke up one day and realized he was working hurt for some shitty, repetitive television, he walked out, he tried his hand at the MMA thing, it was a spectacular failure, he briefly went back to WWE as a talking head, and realized that wasn't going very fulfilling either.
This was the guy who took exceptional pride in his craft. Part of why he walked away from WWE was that he was coming off of the greatest year of his career, wanted it to culminate with a Wrestlemania main event, and instead they gave the main event spot to Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, who was literally walking through the door for a one-time gig. The WWE land of sports entertainment isn't for everybody. In the end, it just wasn't for Punk.
The problem at that point was that WWE kinda had a monopoly on this pro wrestling thing. Yes, Impact and Ring of Honor were there, but they were the smallest fish in a massive pond. New Japan and Mexico's promotions were always an option, but Punk was never going to be able to truly wield one of his greatest weapons (the microphone) there. And once Punk fell on his face in UFC, he simply walked away.
Then All Elite Wrestling happened. Cody Rhodes, Kenny Omega, the Young Bucks, and Tony Khan got their resources together and opted to try their hand at this wrestling thing. It's gone better than anybody could have ever imagined. AEW is about to enter its third year on TNT and Dynamite is one of the most fun pro wrestling shows on the air today. It's injected life into what's been a stale wrestling product. And even better than that, it's started to light a fire under WWE. If you watched Summerslam and Takeover in the last weekend, you saw some exciting new ideas and angles. They weren't necessarily executed well (the Becky Lynch return could have been handled so much better without cannibalizing Bianca Belair), but you know what? At least they're trying, which is more than we've gotten out of WWE in years. Hell, RKBro's more entertaining than anything Randy Orton's done in years, so I can't fault them for at least attempting something different.
With a new crop of unrecognized wrestling talent, underutilized talent either leaving or being outright cut from WWE, and a pool of crossover talent making cameos from New Japan, Impact, and the NWA, pro wrestling is the hottest it's been in years. So yes, it's no wonder CM Punk is back. This kind of environment is everything he ever wanted. Is it perfect? Oh, lord no. Like I said, tonight's episode of Dynamite was really dull. But pro wrestling is a better place with CM Punk in it and it's great to have him back.
And I do hope he gets a chance to work with the best. The Darby Allin match at All Out (in his hometown of Chicago) should be one of the best matches on the show. There are young kids like Jungle Boy for him to work with. There are old WWE veterans like Christian, Miro, Andrade, and PAC, who he could have entirely different kinds of matches with that he never would have been able to under the sports entertainment umbrella. Guys like Bryan Danielson (the former Daniel Bryan) and the former Bray Wyatt are on their way in. The future's bright, even if Punk's getting well into his 40s. His AEW run is going to be something special.
Let's just never speak of his UFC run again.
