A year ago CM Punk defeated Alberto Del Rio for what will probably be his longest run with the WWE Championship, arguably the most prestigious title in all of wrestling. Yet, before Punk was cool with mainstream American wrestling audiences, Ring of Honor was working him like a dog to showcase all of the talent he had. If you listen to the commentary of this match you’ll realize he not only wrestled in this awesome bout from ROH Gold, but later took on members of Generation Next the same night and Samoa Joe the next evening. It also speaks to Punk’s determination that he disregards shifting gears in wrestling. Instead of slowing down his pace he wrestles Homicide of The Rottweilers and does some spots with Rocky Romero at full speed.
Still, since this match CM Punk has at least slightly been EdgedOut. No, that isn’t a typo, but rather my desperate attempt to coin a new term. You see EdgedOut refers to when a heel is built up big and along with (or just after) this push he or she loses what made him or her an interesting character to begin with. During his main event heel run in the late 2000s, Edge was finally pushed after years of being entertaining to be one of the top wrestlers in WWE. The unfortunate part of this is that rather than giving Edge a huge push at his most entertaining, Edge instead adapted his style and personality most likely to meet what WWE writers thought a top heel should be. As such a lot of his awesomeness faded away despite him being at a higher spot on the card than ever.
On the positive side Punk being EdgedOut has affected his in-ring performance minimally if at all. Still, he isn’t exactly the pipe bomb dropping charisma machine he was in June 2011.
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