It's the day after thanksgiving. Black Friday. A day of exciting deals and pandemonium running rampant through the aisles of Wal-mart. But something itneresting happened Thursday, thanksgiving day, and that's the release of the newest episode of Colt Cabana's Art of Wrestling podcast. No flare or hype to promote the show. We thought it was just another episode, number 226. But his guest this week broke the internet and everyone flipped out. CM Punk.
When it was released, the website crashed and as of this writing, it still wasn't available for download from itunes. Punk trended everything, from Facebook to Yahoo, and headlines plastered wrestling websites.
I've actually listened to the show twice and I found it enlightening, but even more so confirming all the things I thought happened with WWE business practices. Here's just a few of the many points covered that stuck out to me. I'm not going to go into detail, as I really think every wrestling fan should listen to the pod.
Pushing wrestling to hard. Punk admits that some of the things were on him, things he maybe shouldn't have done, but felt he had to since he was the champion. The travel isn't a surprise to any wrestling fan, as it's noted as one of the biggest drawbacks to being a WWE wrestler, on the road over three hundred days a year. But we're given a little more insight, as to just how much these guys and girls are pushed to go out and perform, even when sick and hurt.
Not giving a push to wrestlers when they deserve it. Punk was pissed he didn't get pushed after he was on top of the wrestling word after his promo in Vegas and rightly so. But it just confirmed what always happens. They only like pushing guys who "they" want in the spotlight. If Punk hadn't left in January, who knows what would have happened with Daniel Bryan. Maybe he still would've been in the main even in wrestle-mania, maybe not. But I really think him leaving, helped with Bryan's push. And before anyone says wrestlers do get over by themselves, yes that's true. But for how long? Ryder comes to mind. He got himself over and the WWE went with it for a little bit, but then squashed it. Titus O'neil comes to mind now. He was getting really over, and then they split up the Primetime Players and where's he been since? Damien Sandow too. Now he's getting over again, so hopefully it helps, but he's done it by his work ethic and connecting with the crowd. Not because of WWE.
CM Punk mentioned something that should not be a revelation to many, that the company doesn't really plan right. No long term planning. The first thing that came to mind was when they had Daniel Bryan joined the Wyatts. Then two weeks later he's out. Okay, some may think that how long it was supposed to be. Except, in an interview about his fur boots at wrestle-mania, Bryan said himself that he had those made when he joined the Wyatts, because the run with them was supposed to be a lot longer then it was. Poor planning on the companies part.
Ryback was a reveal to me. Let me preface this by saying I don't see the big deal in him. He's big sure, but to me he's always been kind of bland. Just a big lunk in the ring with a running Samoan drop for a finish. After reading some comments on some dirt sheets (I try not to do that too often), some people thought maybe punk was making it up. Then Ryback himself got on twitter and starting posting nonsense again. First off, he shouldn't have even acknowledge it, so I think that shows stupidity there. But by acknowledging it, with the action figures and Punk, he re-enforced my belief in what CM Punk was saying, because it caused me to think back to a tweet Ryback sent out before his operation video. Another picture of a toy Ryback standing over a toy CM Punk on a table and he said sorry. Sorry?! That's admitting fault. Ryback was just getting the fans behind him, so we'll see what happens now.
All this sound like WWE bashing, and maybe a little is. Even before Punk said it, for years I've thought wrestlers should try to assemble some type of union for themselves, if for nothing else at least for the protection of their health. But really, these are just my opinions and like I said, the podcast re-enforced a lot of the things I had already thought about WWE.
Now, with that said, I'm probably still going to watch Raw on Monday. I'm probably still going to keep my WWE Network subscription. Because it is enjoyable to watch and there are wrestlers on WWE that I'm a fan of. Rollins, Ambrose, Mizdow, and others. I know, it might sound lame and hypocritical, but after getting "Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows" on video cassette all those years ago, I thought it was heinous and despicable of how WWE acted and treated Bret Hart. But even then, I couldn't bring myself to stop watching. I guess I can only hope something happens one day where things changes for the wrestlers. Where things are better. Or maybe a new company comes along that can treat them better, seeing as how WWE is really the only game in town, that's widely recognized in the United States.
I submitted an email for the follow up interview, hopefully it gets read, because I'd like to know if Punk is doing any more comic writing stuff. As far as Raw, the next wrestling show to go on since the podcast came out, it'll be interesting to see if there are any "CM Punk" chants during the next raw.
And just one more little opinion, I thought it was interesting at the timing of this podcast. A couple episodes ago, Punk was on the podcast, just briefly, not as a guest, and Colt asked him if he had anything to say or plug. Punk asked him when it was airing, Colt told him, and Punk said no, after what seemed like he thought about it for a second. I think he's had a lot of this on his mind, but didn't want to say anything because he knows exactly how the company is and they'd retaliate, the one way they could, which would be by taking it out on AJ Lee, his wife. But now, supposedly she might be done with WWE, so now he knows they can't mess with her career, so he can say what he wants, and more power to him.
Good job. Enjoyed it.
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