For all of us that are not american and don't follow that "wrestling" thing. I understand why Lesnar was a big deal, the guy is huge. A shaven* sasquatch. CM punk on the other hand looks like an out of shape middle aged man. Why do people keep talking about him? Was him that much of a deal in WWE or whatever else? He doesn't look like an athelete and he has no fighting background. Why should he even fight?
He was probably the most over guy on the roster when he left, minus 'Taker and maybe Bryan. For good reason too; charismatic, great on-the-mic skills, great worker in the ring, had a more realistic gimmick than most, etc. He was basically the antithesis of the typical bodybuilder-looking wrestler, who knows like 3 moves, that Vince likes to push. Smarter crowds these days seem to prefer that.
He was slightly below GSP in Google Trends (but consistently so, barring one spike). GSP was well below John Cena barring a couple of spikes during events. It should be said that from what I understand from my friends who both actively wrassle and follow it, that his career was terribly managed by the WWE. That would kinda make sense in terms of him jumping to MMA.
He was a very good worker in the ring. Yes, obviously wrestling's not real fighting, but he had the ability to pull off anything almost flawlessly. And he was great as both a face and a heel. I think he's the first wrestler in a long time to match or beat John Cena in merch sales. He's not as physically imposing as Brock and i highly doubt he'll come anywhere near his success in MMA, but he'll undoubtedly pull a lot of numbers for his fights.
At one point he was their biggest star. But it didn't last. WWE still had Cena main event everything and then the Rock came back for a little while to take the title from him and headline WM with Cena.
Very charismatic and clever on the mic. Great at putting on a match. And he had the balls to say fuck you to the management and shitty writers. He was a one of a kind talent in the wrestling world. He left WWE because he felt they were under-promoting him (which they kind of were), and he could have been a mega-star if they backed him. That being said signing with the UFC was a bad move. If he wanted to fight so baldy he should have gone to a regional promotion. His sideshow match doesn't belong with the top competitors fighting.
Liked by the "wrestling" fans, but pretty much unknown otherwise in the United States. Probably at the level of second tier celebrities like Ryan Seacrest, Joe Rogan, and television stars.
He was floating around number 1 or 2 in term of popularity from about 2011 to 2013, he was also much loved on the internet for breaking the script and giving shout outs to wrestling outside of the wwe. He was essentially the guy that appealed to the "hardcore" fans.
To put it this way, he was their longest reigning modern-day World champ, within at least the past 20 years. Yeah, it's fake fighting, but having a rasslin' company put their highest honor on you for that length of time shows how much of a big deal he was, during his time there.
That was in fact enlightening... I can see that he's a charismatic guy, even got me interested in the result of that "fight". But that doesn't change the fact that he's not a fighter, athlete or martial artist of any practical kind. Does anybody really think he can do anything in a real fight or are they all trolls?
As I understand it though, that was his original intention (to start at the bottom at the regional level). Lorenzo, however, counter offered to have him sign with the UFC and have his first fight on PPV. (Which, lets be honest, you can't blame the man for taking it. That was likely a big money offer).
Brought about the 4th revival of wrestling on tv tbh. Hogan, Austin-Rock, Cena. Then he did his shoot promo on RAW and it was cool to like wrestling again. Every grievance anyone in the world had had with a boss or a workplace resonated when he spoke. Even before that promo his Straight Edge Society gimmick was genius. His matches with Cena, Brock, Undertaker were all match of the year candidates. Still annoyed we didnt get a Steve Austin / CM Punk match. AS that would have been gold.
Don't care about wrasslin too much. I just think he is going to get hurt in the cage and HAVE to go back to wrasslin where he just burnt his bridges with the WWF.
he was one of their top guys but he only gained superstardom in his later career with the wwe more specifically it happened after a "pipe bomb" promo too which he nailed perfectly and the crowd has been backing him since basically he was given a shot and he excelled due to his very good talking skills referred to as mic skills
