I have not watched the WWE documentaries for other guys, but this one on it's own was pretty interesting. It was as honest and all encompassing as you'd ever expect a WWE production to ever be - actually, no, let me amend that and say it was far more honest than I've grown to expect WWE to be. The major theme of the movie is Punk reaching a level, people doubting he belonged and sure he'd never get past that level, and Punk getting past that level.
This continues straight thru his WWE tenure, with no dancing around the fact that he could've easily been cut from OVW, that no one liked him (or even really knew who he was) except for Paul Heyman, and that he was always expecting to be cut at any moment from the time Paul left until he won Money in the Bank the first time because he was a Heyman creation. (Michael Hayes spends the middle third of the movie being the voice of the anti-Punk opinion, while HHH plays more neutral/positive role. Vince is a character but never appears himself.)
There is no shying away from the bad times. They go the other way and dig deep into the failure of his first title run - both his anger over being treated like midcard world champion, their justification for it, and the poor way it ended. There's talk of how great the Straight Edge Society started, Punk's non-subtle play as Wrestling Jesus, and his dissatisfaction over how it fell apart.
Punk explained the failure of the SES (more accurately, the failure of WWE to take advantage of the SES) was a big factor in him not wanting to resign. The other? Miz main eventing WrestleMania. I kind of felt bad for the Miz, because he shows both earlier and later just raving about Punk and how much he helped him, but Punk makes it clear he wasn't at all impressed with Miz, and didn't understand how Miz could be in the main event of the biggest show of the year when he (Punk) was the biggest heel they had.
(Which, for my money, means CM Punk will do whatever he can to be in the main event of WrestleMania this year, even if means his actual title run ends sooner. He mentioned main eventing A WrestleMania as his big goal in the later Q&A.)
The big reveal the other way was Punk didn't sign his contract to stay in WWE until halfway thru Money in the Bank (which I think we knew?), and it sounds like Joey Mercury might have inspired him to do it. "You can't change things from your couch in Chicago." The movie kind of leaves off with the chronology there, not dealing with the actual on screen return and timing of it or anything really past that point.
I'm skipping stuff and jumping out of order, and the really interesting stuff for WWE was the first half of the movie, where they covered Punk's early life and independent rise in detail. I mean, footage from multiple Lunatic Wrestling Federation shows straight from his foster family's backyard kind of detail. Talk of Colt vs Punk as the traveling match that got them onto indy shows, lots of talk about IWA including both the time he and Hero - listed by that name- tried to destroy a barn, the stretch where he fell in love with obscenely long matches, and the Hero/Punk match that got them both on the map even bigger. That leads into Punk visiting the ROH school and discussions of things like Punk vs Raven, Punk vs Joe, and the Summer of Punk, with the footage (and a thanks to ROH at the end.)
When it was mentioned Punk insisted on IWA and ROH footage, I still didn't expect it to be anything more than token mention - here's Punk when he was just a wee babe, and now look at all this great stuff he's done in WWE! That is not the case at all. LWF, IWA, ROH, OVW are treated like important places where Punk accomplished things, grew, and then took the next step. WWE is still King Kong, but everything is shown to matter.
If I have to nitpick - and look at my posts, I have to nitpick - a diehard may not find a lot of stuff out they don't already know about his career (though even if you follow it thru newsletters and such, I think there's about 20% you don't know) and I was disappointed to see the Rey Misterio feud go completely unmentioned. There are extra, hopefully it's in one of those. But, if you just like CM Punk to have made it to this far in this post, it's a DVD worth checking out.
The live event was nice. Free admission is always good! Wait in line outside was not too long by the time I turned up, though the line for the concessions took a bit longer. In place of normal previews, they ran DVD trailers and WWE Films trailers (including one non-superstar horror movie I didn't even know existed.) In place of the usual onscreen movie trivia, there were multiple choice trivia questions about CM Punk's career. I'm assuming Punk was involved in picking them, because one asked who Punk beat for the ROH Title, and the answer is amusingly subversive (Austin Aries.) Punk, Lita, Colt Cabana and Domino said hello before the movie, with more WWE people in the reserved section. Punk reminded us that he demanded a CM Punk movie and CM Punk ice cream bars, and he didn't have ice cream bars . Punk cued the movie to start...which started out as the most recent HHH movie before Punk stopped that and put the right movie on.
After the movie, we were all treated to cookies, milk, and a 20 minute Q&A session. The Q&A session was mostly useless - he would like to face Steve Austin as we've known for at least a year, he didn't have anything he was going to say when he was cut off during his promo because that was he was supposed to be cut off, he doesn't know who he'd like to face in his last match because that's kind of a morbid thought.
Someone did ask Punk what change he believe he's brought by staying in WWE. Punk did not want to take credit for getting anyone hired, but believes he's changed the company's attitude on independent wrestlers and on wrestlers entirely - they may bring in a bodybuilder or football player to be a star, but the company has always been built on wrestlers and always will be. In that vein, Punk mentioned all usual suspects in FCW as guys he'd like to come up soon. Punk also helpfully ignored a weak last question to instead explain that if he had a time traveling car - he had earlier said Back to the Future 2 was his favorite of the trilogy - he would use not to change history (because you can't do that), but go back to see all the great Punk bands that broke up or fell apart before he got to seem them.
If you had a time traveling car and wanted to see something CM Punk related - well, I'd still tell you to travel back to Money in the Bank because I still had goosepimples watching it back in the movie - but this would have also been a good night to travel too. In leui of a time traveling car, the DVD comes out Tuesday.
Sadly my straight edge cookie that Colt Cabana gave me was broken.
A very fun night that reinforced something. Punk is the last American worker with a town that is his. John Cena is no more loved in Boston than anywhere else. Randy Orton isn't extra over or attached to St. Louis. But CM Punk has made being from Chicago as integral to his persona as a Von Erich being from Dallas or Bret Hart being from Calgary.
Originally posted by spfA very fun night that reinforced something. Punk is the last American worker with a town that is his. John Cena is no more loved in Boston than anywhere else. Randy Orton isn't extra over or attached to St. Louis. But CM Punk has made being from Chicago as integral to his persona as a Von Erich being from Dallas or Bret Hart being from Calgary.
Zack Ryder is the only possible exception (not that WWE treats him as such).
The Big Bossman raised the briefcase.
Go Pack Go! Owner of one (1) share. (2-2, 3rd NFC North) Let's Go Riders! Owner of one (1) share. (7-6, 3rd West Division.)
Originally posted by DawgNice write up. I wasn't even aware that this was coming out, but seems worth checking out since they don't just gloss over his early career.
Um, I should probably know this, but what happens if I click The W amazon link? Does the message board get some of the monies? Thanks.
If one were to buy a DVD using that link, we'd get about a buck back as a referral fee. It'd be about $1.30 for a Blu-ray (added the Blu-ray link, by the way).
Any money we might get would probably go towards buying Cubs a nice present for posting that review here.
Originally posted by thecubsfan...and didn't understand how Miz could be in the main event of the biggest show of the year when he (Punk) was the biggest heel they had.
(Which, for my money, means CM Punk will do whatever he can to be in the main event of WrestleMania this year, even if means his actual title run ends sooner. He mentioned main eventing A WrestleMania as his big goal in the later Q&A.)
...After the movie, we were all treated to cookies, milk, and a 20 minute Q&A session. The Q&A session was mostly useless - he would like to face Steve Austin as we've known for at least a year...
I'm not sure if it's part of the work or maybe I'm just dense and cynical, but isn't it a bit hypocritical (if the reportz are true) for Punk to bemoan The Rock stepping into the main event of WrestleMania while he actively hopes/advocates/campaigns for Austin to, essentially, do the same thing with him? I guess I'm just not understanding the difference. Again, if it's a work, then I'm just stupid but if not, it just makes Punk seem (even more) disingenuous.
I guess I, personally, have a hard time supporting Punk because I feel like he just panders to the audience...and it's obvious. I can understand if he, as a fan, is doing what he can to pay tribute to wrestling fandom but without going into a whole thesis, I'll just say it seems forced. He knows when to zig when everything else zags (i.e., ROH is anti-WWE, say you're taking the ROH belt to Vince's desk--like the Dudleyz six years prior; IWC feels marginalized, appeal to them on the mic, etc.) but it seems like it's more because YOU believe it more than he actually does.
Then again, maybe that is the mark of a good worker.
Originally posted by spfA very fun night that reinforced something. Punk is the last American worker with a town that is his. John Cena is no more loved in Boston than anywhere else. Randy Orton isn't extra over or attached to St. Louis. But CM Punk has made being from Chicago as integral to his persona as a Von Erich being from Dallas or Bret Hart being from Calgary.
Zack Ryder is the only possible exception (not that WWE treats him as such).
Isn't Regal usually over when they go to the UK?
(if we treat it as a city and not just a country/countries)
edit: oops. didn't see the "american" part of the statement until after I wrote my response. Of course, I saw Hart mentioned so didn't think it was a limiting question.
I'm not sure if it's part of the work or maybe I'm just dense and cynical, but isn't it a bit hypocritical (if the reportz are true) for Punk to bemoan The Rock stepping into the main event of WrestleMania while he actively hopes/advocates/campaigns for Austin to, essentially, do the same thing with him?
We were warned not to get in Punk's mind, so I'm already wrong, but while you and I would assume Punk/Austin should be the main event of a WrestleMania, he might be seeing it as a special attraction. I'm not sure his problem with the Rock was the Rock wrestling at WrestleMania but treated as the main event.
(Though, in all reality, even if they had pushed Punk vs Jericho much stronger going in, people were always going to treat Cena/Rock as the main event.)
Originally posted by WhattaburgerI'm not sure if it's part of the work or maybe I'm just dense and cynical, but isn't it a bit hypocritical (if the reportz are true) for Punk to bemoan The Rock stepping into the main event of WrestleMania while he actively hopes/advocates/campaigns for Austin to, essentially, do the same thing with him? I guess I'm just not understanding the difference. Again, if it's a work, then I'm just stupid but if not, it just makes Punk seem (even more) disingenuous.
The main difference is that Austin left because he was too physically banged up to continue. If it weren't for that, Austin would very likely still be going today. Whereas The Rock left because he decided Hollywood was better than Wrestling.
Punk speaks of Austin with a lot of reverence. I don't remember a quote or the context but Google makes me think it's on the most recent Austin DVD though. Anyway, Punk talks about Austin hugging him after Hogan blowing him off. So there could be other reasons that Punk would resent Dwayne being in the main event but not resent Austin being there.