CM Punk: “You Either Die A Hero, Or Live Long Enough To See Yourself Become The Villain”

“You Either Die A Hero, Or Live Long Enough To See Yourself Become The Villain”

CM Punk has been in the industry for over 23 years, beginning his career in 1999 and for most of his career has either been an anti hero, or a better than you heel. This has worked for him, as he is perhaps one of the greatest of all time when you factor in all of his accomplishments and moments he has been a part of both in the ring and on the microphone, hell, even on commentary. When Punk was in WWE, his entire gimmick revolved around being the disrupter of WWE. He wasn’t the chosen guy, he spoke his mind and rebelled against The McMahon’s, John Cena and the entire ideology of what WWE wanted in a superstar. Punk would prove that his character was an extension of himself back then, as he walked out of WWE after the 2014 Royal Rumble event. This would kick off a seven year absence from the sport of wrestling.

When he made his way over to AEW in 2021, he was met with an incredible reception. He was where he belonged and initially, he was an incredible asset for AEW. Feuding with young stars such as Darby Allin and MJF, he would be a staple of AEW programming and in 2022, would become the AEW World Champion, defeating Hangman Page at AEW Double Or Nothing. This was the beginning of Punk’s shift from hero to villain as 23 years into his career, he had officially lived long enough to become the villain in this story.

The quote, spoken by Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight is one of many comparison’s that can be made between CM Punk and the story of Batman. Paul Heyman has even previously likened the rivalry between Punk and John Cena to that of The Joker and Batman’s. Ironic, considering the status of The Joker as the embodiment of chaos, something the former AEW World Champion is happy to cause within All Elite Wrestling.

Without talking about it too much, Punk’s All Out Media Scrum rant is a moment in time where he truly did become the villain, as it would form the backdrop of what would be a tremendously controversial time in his career. Punk would scathingly attack The Elite and others, with The Elite then having enough and confronting the straight edge pro wrestler in his locker room. This would ignite a brawl between the two parties that resulted in the suspensions of all involved. Since then, Punk has maintained he was not the catalyst to this incident, and has continued to fire shots at The Elite any chance he gets.

Most recently, Punk would take aim at Hangman Page following Saturday’s AEW Collision taping, after Punk had blocked Hangman attending the event to record a pretaped promo. Ironic coming from a man who called Page out in late 2022 and said the former AEW World Champion was doing “coward shit”.

Following the shots at Hangman, it was revealed that not only were those comments not storyline, but that Hangman was not the only one blocked from attending. It would be reported that Ryan Nemeth had also been told to go home after getting into an argument over Punk due to Ryan calling Punk soft. Which is also another dramatic irony as Punk once again chose the politics route with issues.

However, while Nemeth was one thing, Christopher Daniels, the head of AEW talent relations, has also been sent home from a Collision taping. This is an incredibly informative note, as it shows the power that Punk has within All Elite Wrestling despite Tony Khan’s assertions that is not the case.

When all things are considered, it truly is remarkable the amount of wiggle room that has been given to Punk in order to keep him happy in AEW. With The Elite recently re-signing with the promotion, it is an incredibly bad look to have Hangman be blocked from attending an event, for any reason.

In truth, Punk’s antics are a throwback to that of the 90s, when there were multiple stars in multiple companies allowing their egos to cause issues with other roster members and for someone so against politics in wrestling, particularly from when he was in WWE and was against the establishment, Punk truly does seem like he is using his influence to harm the careers of those around him, including young talent like Nemeth and one of the faces of the company in general.

At the end of the day were are under two weeks away from perhaps the biggest event in the history of wrestling and All In will have its own set of issues without Punk instigating more problems with other roster members so close to the event. Seth Rollins would call Punk a cancer earlier this year, and it seems Punk is hellbent on proving the WWE superstar right.

We will have to wait and see if Punk and The Elite are able to one day bury the hatchet but for the time being, it really does not look like Punk is in any mood to compromise.

“Some men just want to watch the world burn.”

Follow Corey at @CoreyBrennanBS on Twitter

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