Americans: why is CM Punk famous?

[chinarice]

I obviously know it's because of his pro wrestling, but why was he "chosen" by the writers/producers to become champ? I only know the guy from UFC, and with all respect i see someone who:

- Is not athletic
- Doesn't have an impressive body (at all)
- Is a pretty boring speaker
- Has little charisma

So what was it? Gotta be something right?

The fans chose him. He has charisma..... Do you know that CM Punk was a character on a pro wrestling show? Did you know that you can portray someone you are not as a fictional pro wrestling character?

The fans loved him. He talked shit on the mic and the crowd loved it. Wrestling in 2018 is not about sexy boy toy bodies like Vince's WWF in the 80s and 90s so the body appearance isn't as important anymore.

Oh wait, I am not murican....this wasn't a question for me.

 

[Shead202]

CM Punk came off as a geniune guy in a fake wrestling world. In WWE they script everything now from what you can do in the ring to promos because they have hollywood writers that have never been in a real fight (or a fake fight) and they write crap that wrestlers that can't act have to convey. CM Punk wasn't scripted word for word. He had bullet points of where a storyline would go and he would create his own picture within that confines. That's what made him off of as geniune in the phony world of pro wrestling. He was a decent wrestler that has a lot of hype from the internet starting in 2004 in a promotion called Ring Of Honor so he always had the internet wrestling fans behind him. He did a promo once upon a time that can be summarized as this company sucks and I'm leaving. He did that in both ROH and WWE. When he did it in WWE he became super popular because it made people question for a moment if that was real even though it's scripted. It came off as legit even though it wasn't.

To this day in WWE in 2018 the crowd chants his name when something sucks. They used to chant Randy Savage when something sucked (not to disrespect the Macho Man but they do it when they aren't interested in a match or a segment) and now they chant for CM Punk. Anytime WWE is in town in Chicago and someone chants CM Punk at someone like Stephanie McMahon, she always reminds him that he's a quitter that tapped out super quick in the UFC and the crowd would get super angry (it's the truth though)

People want CM Punk to return to wrestling (probably MMA fans as well because he needs to get the fuck out of the UFC but lets be honest he'll probably go to bellator to continue fighting.)

One more thing about wrestling.. WWE signed a 5 year deal with Fox to air Smackdown (WWE's B show) for a billion dollars. WWE's current stock is through the roof even when they were at the most popular which was the late 90s/early 00s. A lot of fans have been turned off from WWE because the wrestling got stale, the writing sucks, everything is too scripted and are grivitating to New Japan Pro Wrestling who are slowly getting known in the US because of the different type of wrestling they do and the shit they do like this

 

[Steve-French]

It's probably part of the reason for MMA's birth and popularity. I think Bruce Lee (and a few others, but primarily Lee) popularizing martial arts in the U.S. and introducing fictional style vs. style tournaments (Enter the Dragon) is even more fundamental, though. In Japan, pro wrestling definitely gave birth to MMA, but the UFC itself isn't a direct descendent like Pancrase was.

It all goes back to Karl Gotch and Billy Robinson, who trained together in old school catch wrestling, both went their different ways in the pro wrestling world and ultimately both of them ended up in Japan training pro wrestlers.

Gotch trained Yoshiaki Fujiwara, who trained Suzuki and Funaki, who recruited and trained Ken Shamrock, Frank Shamrock, Rutten, going on to found Pancrase. Robinson would train most of the UWFI wrestlers that would go on to become Pride.

Then I don't think a lot of modern fans really understand the influence that Rings had on Pride. Pride basically swallowed up Rings, took their best fighters(Fedor, Overeem, etc), stole their ideas, then put them out of business in 2002, right around the time that Pride really started to kick ass.

The guy who founded Rings, Akira Maeda is connected to Takada, Fujiwara, and Tiger Mask. Those four guys all came out of the same dojo and basically laid the groundwork for what MMA would become. Their bidding war over Rickson Gracie would basically shape the history of MMA.

If you take away pro wrestling's direct influence on MMA history, you take away Ken Shamrock, Dan Severn, Suzuki, Funaki, Frank Shamrock, Bas Rutten, Sakuraba, Takada, Fedor, Pancrase, Pride, Rings, Shooto never happens. I think it's safe to say that maybe MMA never happens, especially when you consider the influence that pro wrestling had on Mitsuyo Maeda, who taught the Gracies how to grapple.

Maeda was living in a YMCA in Alabama at one point during his travels, learning tricks of the trade from the pro wrestlers he befriended in the 1900's. He basically taught the Gracie's Judo with some old school pro wrestling tricks and submissions worked into it. I mean, if you take all of that away, what does that leave MMA? It would have basically been just a toughman contest, it would have died an early death, if it even would have happened at all.

 

[BigDramaShow26]

Hes bor even famous
And the PpV buys will prove that.

 

[ClosetVitorFan]

Bro looked 70 years old in his prime <Lmaoo><45>

That's what the horse shoe male pattern baldness does to someone.

 

[Steve-French]

There was also the tough guy contest in 1979 which was basically MMA with head gear. Showtime just released a documentary about it a few months ago.

 

[venivedivici]

I can’t stand cm punk .. but he can talk his ass off in wrestling

 

[WinZip]

He was the first non-alcoholic pro wrestler

Non-anabolic too

 

[tenniswhiz]

He was good at pro wrestling. Being good at pro wrestling doesn’t really have any transferable skills to MMA.

Not true.

Transferring skills is in the talent and imagination of each individual.

 

[WinZip]

Not true.

Transferring skills is in the talent and imagination of each individual.

Saku was a pretty good catch-wrestler before he took his first pro fight, and that's where his grappling skills came from. Not really a good comparison to Punk, who had top training and still looked like dogshit

 

[funksoulbrother]

Didn't you just answer your own question?

No he’s askin why the wwe chose him to be champion etc

 

[24K]

I was a wrestling fan in the 80/90’s . I could never understand how this guy was popular and remember thinking how shitty the product had become . but look at wrestling now you have Rousey lol

 

[teamfox223]

For people who are not WWE fans will never understand that. Is like not liking Country music yet wonder why they sell millions of records.

This is a MMA forum here no one likes him here because his a shit MMA fighter and have no business fighting in the UFC. Some nicer people here gives him some credit for stepping in the cage.

 

[Closet Lurker]

Cause Merica and cause they all have the lamest role models ever.

 

[vcmmafan]

I obviously know it's because of his pro wrestling, but why was he "chosen" by the writers/producers to become champ? I only know the guy from UFC, and with all respect i see someone who:

- Is not athletic
- Doesn't have an impressive body (at all)
- Is a pretty boring speaker
- Has little charisma

So what was it? Gotta be something right?

There was a period in WWE where he was very popular and he still has a huge following from his time there

 

[caesar]

He was popular in wrestling because of his sarcasm. Plus, he had great chemistry with John Cena, who is the biggest star in wrestling.

He copied Brian PIllman, all the sarcasm, building up a cult like following, stcking it to the man, being a lone wolf, not giving a fuck, that was all Brian Pillman, that Punk just reinvented his charcter, made it his own.

 

[Katsumi Yamada]

Attitude era was GOAT. Hulk Hogan was a terrible in ring performer and worse on the Mic than both Stone Cold and The Rock

Attitude era only came about because WWF had to compete with Hollywood Hogan and the NWO, basically Hogan started the attitude era.

 

[theincognito]

It has been explained on here before that WWE pushed him hard because he was drug free and they were wrapped up in a lot of controversy about drugs and wrestlers dying at the time

 

[Reyesnuthugr]

Because he's a scrawny little trash with a big mouth so all the backwoods 13 year old aspiring meth addicts that resemble that (70%+ of the pro wrestling demographic) got to think "wow, if this guy can make it, maybe so can I ! "

It's like how people on dancing and singing talent shows root hardest for the fat ugly chicks even if they suck. Look at the commercials, they don't put hot chicks on tv ads anymore because this new generation is insecure AF and only wants average or worse looking people on tv to sell them things because otherwise it makes them feel self conscious and get angry at the spokesperson for being hot.

It's not cool to have role models that actually have ideal traits and real talent these days- that makes snowflakes unhappy now and makes them resentful of what is being marketed.

Thus the stage was set for Phil Brooks to take advantage of this new market and whelm everyone with mediocrity

 

[chick magnet punk]

He was the best talker in the company by far plus he was very talented in pro wrestling.