CM Punk is not “the voice of the voiceless,” he’s just a wrestler.
Granted, he’s a great wrestler, with a great character, with a great catalog of matches and moments that will stand the test of time. However, that is all he is. So why have we made him more? Why have we been unable to stop talking about him since 2006? Why have so many fallen deep into his cult of personality? Because he, unwittingly, fosters a parasocial relationship with fans who seek to live vicariously through him.
CM Punk’s character is tailor-made for the very niche market that professional wrestling serves. The professional wrestling market is composed, predominantly, of males that are between the ages of 18-40 who are often socially marginalized for their hobbies, awkward/shy demeanor, and/or body type. As such, they respond very well to atypical, rebellious, trash talking anti-heroes such as Stone Cold Steve Austin, Roddy Piper, and Eddie Guerrero, because they are inspired by the way these characters found strength by accepting and embracing themselves despite the world telling them “no.” CM Punk is not only an amalgamation of these characters that similarly found success by raging against a machine that did not want him, but also and more so than his peers, made the struggle against the status quo the defining part of his story while serving as a self-insert character for the typical wrestling fan. His story, as such, served as a conduit through which fans developed a parasocial relationship with his character.
This then begs the question: how did Punk unwittingly become a self-insert character? CM Punk gained notoriety and stardom during the late 2000s to mid-2010s by representing the anti-culture in WWE. The WWE famously promotes clean-cut, statuesque, advertiser and media-friendly, former professional/collegiate athletes as their top stars. In-ring ability is not a criterion for them as these former athletes can be trained to wrestle and this strategy has led them to success with the likes of The Rock, John Cena, Roman Reigns, Brock Lesnar, Kurt Angle, and many others. CM Punk, in stark contrast, learned to wrestle in his backyard. He has read more comic books than textbooks, has an impressive but attainable physique, is adorned with innumerable tattoos and piercings, and looks like he has a spotty record in Waffle House brawls.
So while you’d have to go to a Hollywood movie lot to find The Rock or the Olympics to find Kurt Angle, you’d only have to go to your local comic book shop at 11 a.m. on a Wednesday to find CM Punk. But that’s the magic. Nothing about CM Punk is what WWE wanted, but fans rallied behind him because he was just like them – a comic book-reading outcast who watched too much wrestling. This is the secret ingredient of CM Punk’s Kool-Aid.
Fans react so feverishly to CM Punk because they could conceivably be CM Punk. He never played in the NFL or comes from a time-honored wrestling family like Roman Reigns or The Rock. He’s never won an Olympic gold medal with a broken freakin’ neck like Kurt Angle. He has no flashy moves like Rey Mysterio or AJ Styles. He isn’t a near 7-foot tall behemoth like The Undertaker, Kane, or The Big Show. He’s just some dude from Chicago that loves Batman and horror movies and earned millions of dollars by living every die-hard wrestling fan’s dream of actually being a wrestler. Punk’s story is pure wish fulfillment for the average wrestling fan. His story gives them hope because if Punk wins, it means they too can win. As his song goes, “[he] knows your anger, [he] knows your dreams, [he’s] been everything you want to be” which is why the life and times of CM Punk generates a response in the wrestling community like none other.
After all, fans granted Punk sainthood in 2011 after that infamous night in Vegas where he called out WWE’s corporate oppressors because he showed the strength and confidence they could only dream to have. Fans threatened to riot if he was not scripted to win the WWE Championships a few weeks later because they needed to know that someone like him can rise above. Fans mourned when he left in 2014 because they were frightened that not even he could stop the machine but nevertheless, chanted his name in arenas across the world for seven years to keep his ideology alive. Seven years. How many other wrestlers get that treatment from fans?
CM Punk is a parasocial idol to his fans because they need his story to be true. But for every way this one-sided relationship inspires his fans, it pollutes their minds as well. Throughout Punk’s entire time in the WWE, fans chronicled, investigated, and dissected every rumor, innuendo, and controversy to separate facts and fictions. Every scripted match of his was seen through a hazed lens of conspiracy theories regarding his standing with the WWE creative powers that be. There are even stories of Punk himself beginning to become paranoid about his positioning in the company after seeing online chatter regarding his storylines. Because fans had become so invested, Punk’s matches and storylines weren’t so much about making a TV show; they were wars of ideology.
Don’t believe me? Look back at what happened during CM Punk’s run in All Elite Wrestling. After a seven-year hiatus, Punk finally returned to the ring in 2021 under the AEW banner to rapturous applause from the fanbase. His mere presence alone was not only able to further solidify the company’s foothold in the market; it brought grown men in the crowd to tears, boosted merchandise and attendance revenue, above all else, he was able to rekindle that relationship he had with the fanbase.
Sadly though, CM Punk seems to herald controversy, confusion, and calamity wherever he roams, and his time in AEW was no different. While fans were excited to have their hero back, there were rampant rumors of unrest in the AEW locker room due to Punk’s presence. The AEW locker room, impressively, tends to be very tight-lipped when it comes to backstage occurrences in formal media interviews and to date, no rumor regarding Punk has ever been substantiated by an AEW employee, however, there was so much smoke that most pundits feel safe to assume that there were issues.
These tensions came to a head in September of 2022 in a press-conference after an AEW PPV, All Out. CM Punk had just won the world title, but injured himself in the process. He appeared before the wrestling press, still bloody from the match, but instead of talking about his win or teasing upcoming storylines, he launched an expletive-filled tirade against several co-workers and members of the management team for their treatment. The media was shocked but the dismay came later when news broke that Punk and his friend, Ace Steel, got into a physical altercation with several members of the AEW management team, including three of their biggest stars. Stories of this brawl included punches and chairs being thrown, a dog that had to be carried to safety, and someone biting people.
Punk was not seen on television for nine months while he was serving out a suspension, returned briefly, but was then publicly fired and disowned on television by the president of AEW, Tony Khan, who cited that he “…felt [his] security, [his] safety, [his] life was in danger at a wrestling show” due to Punk after yet another backstage altercation. Numerous NDAs have been signed by all parties involved, so we’ll never know the truth. For context, however, the last wrestler that was publicly disowned on television was Chris Benoit in 2007. That’s where AEW was with Punk.
But for as tumultuous as this time surely was for Punk, fans incessantly and unrelentingly argued, debated, trolled, harassed, and threatened journalists, associated wrestlers, and even other fans for over two years, all in the name of CM Punk. Many sided with Punk and felt there was a conspiracy against him. Just as many felt that Punk’s known prior history was evidence enough to deem him a blight on the wrestling world all the while rumors swirled regarding an impending return to WWE. And now that those rumors were proven true, the cycle begins anew with CM Punk. How is the WWE locker room going to react to Punk? Is he going to be a bigger source of controversy? Are other wrestlers willing to work with him? Will his dog, Larry, debut in WWE? And above all else, can we just f***ing stop?
To every CM Punk fan reading this, I get it. I moved back in with my parents after graduating college on June 27th, 2011 and I was drenched in doubt. I was not happy with my academic performance in college, people came out of the woodwork to tell me that I would never make it in life, and several of my loved ones told me that I had to change to find success. But what did I find that night on Raw? CM Punk’s speech was the kick in the ass that I needed to believe in myself again. His story was one that I needed to hear as it promised me that I wouldn’t need to change to find success and I will always be grateful to know that story. But that’s all it is: a great story told by a great wrestler.
Go on Twitter. Go on Reddit. Hell, go on GameFAQs and you’ll see that fans give no other wrestler the mental real estate they give to Punk because they have deified him. They are essentially shouting at the TV at this point, hoping he hears them and it’s time to stop. Fans need to remember that he came up with the “voice of the voiceless” schtick in 2011. Fans need to stop rehashing the stories that came out about him after he left in 2014. Fans need to be okay with never knowing what happened in those fateful backstage moments in AEW between 2021 and 2023. And most importantly, I hope fans can just start enjoying him again because he is putting out some bangers. You all forgot about Samoa Joe vs. CM Punk at All In, didn’t you?
During the few moments we have left, I’d like to talk right down to earth. CM Punk is undoubtedly a great addition to professional wrestling, but that’s all he is. I understand that his character means a lot to fans, I understand he may have been everything you want to be but he’s not a cult of personality, he’s just a dude. So please, stop arguing with strangers on Twitter over a millionaire who doesn’t know who you are, just watch some wrestling and detox from this cult you have accidentally found yourself in by, well, not caring so much. Just enjoy the show. CM Punk is not a symbol, he’s not an ideal, and he’s not a cult leader. You gave him fortune, you gave him fame, you gave him power in your god’s name but I promise, you will enjoy wrestling so much more if you realize that, you don’t have to follow him. Only you can set you free.
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