Nothing was out of the ordinary until the main event: John Cena vs. R-Truth in a tables match. As Cena got ready to AA Truth through a table, CM Punk (having swapped his Nexus t-shirt for a Stone Cold one) ran down the entrance ramp and pulled the table aside. Punk and Cena brawled for a few moments, before R-Truth capitalized and speared Cena through a table. Punk then grabbed a microphone, walked back up the entrance ramp, and sat down cross-legged on the stage. He began speaking, and everything still seemed pretty normal.
…Right up until he told John Cena, “There’s one thing you’re better at than I am, and that’s kissing Vince McMahon’s ass.” From then on, the entire arena was hanging on Punk’s every word. It felt like someone had given the crowd one massive adrenaline shot. We felt like we were witnessing somebody go so far off-script that he had entered a parallel universe. Punk would go on to reference Hulk Hogan, The Rock (as “Dwayne”), Brock Lesnar, Ring of Honor, Colt Cabana, and New Japan Pro Wrestling. He insulted Stephanie McMahon, Triple H, John Laurinaitis, and the USA Network itself. And he did it all in a way that felt genuine. Much of it probably was – if Punk didn’t have those actual grievances back then, he certainly would as his WWE tenure wore on.
It wasn’t just Punk’s words that made those five-and-a-half minutes so captivating. It was John Cena’s priceless reactions whenever the camera cut to him in the ring. It was Punk’s calm but heated delivery. It was that damn Stone Cold shirt.
However it came across at home, the promo felt much more intense in-person. Some people cheered Punk’s comments, but most stayed silent in shocked disbelief. It felt very real. Even though it was ultimately a worked shoot, the energy in that arena told a different story. When Punk’s mic was cut off, it felt like he was being silenced solely for the live audience, and we thought that RAW had already cut to commercial by that point. It was truly surreal, an environment I had never experienced at a pro wrestling show and probably never will again. When Punk left the stage, the crowd took a collective exhale. You’d think that everyone would have started asking each other about what had just happened, but most of us were still pretty speechless.
We were only sure of one thing – we had witnessed something that could never be erased. Punk had left a lasting mark on WWE and the pro wrestling business.
Next Page: Remembering CM Punk’s Pipe Bomb Promo, 7 Years Later (cont.)
