(no subject)
In April of 2006, my brother, some friends of his and I took a road trip up to Chicago. We went to Wrestlemania together and, unbeknownst to us at the time, we were witnessing CM Punk's first televised appearance in WWE as one of John Cena's gangsters hanging around the car he used in his entrance.
At the time, I knew next to nothing about the Indys or much else outside of the world of WWE as it pertained to professional wrestling, so his name didn't mean much to me at first, but he quickly became something vital that summer. I had next to no knowledge of the straight edge lifestyle, I just knew after a couple of previous second-hand experiences that drinking/drugs weren't for me, but I never knew there was a name for it until Punk entered the WWE. Thanks to him, I was able to research its origins, and eventually learned that, ironically enough, he considered Pepsi to be a symbol of his lifestyle (Thus Punk's tattoo on his arm). Which amused me because I've been a Pepsi drinker the biggest part of my life, so it just seemed to fit me even better than it had already.
No matter how questionable his booking was, I always enjoyed Punk and he gave me something to look forward to in the aftermath of Eddie dying and Jericho leaving. The Straight Edge Society, his pipebomb promo, so many other moments that I took for granted in hindsight.
When the news hit that he had left the WWE the night after the Rumble, it honestly felt like I was punched in the stomach. Came out of nowhere, because I had expected to have until... well, until today, had planned on ordering the final PPV he'd be on and saying goodbye to him then. But I've never begrudged him it, as I said on Facebook just last night. The long list of his injuries, how burnt out and tired he clearly was. If you watch his DVD, it's clear he gave so much of his life to professional wrestling.
Even with those thoughts, that Tuesday was a hard day, I spent a lot of it forced into running errands and there's even a picture of me that an establishment needed me to take for future IDing purposes. I don't even want to know what that thing looks like. I ended up going to my favorite burger joint afterwards and eating an early supper of mini corndogs and cheesesticks just to have some time to myself, but I mostly just remember staring at my phone and hoping for updates, someone to say it was a joke, anything.
But it wasn't, so here we are. His contract expired today, and they moved him to the alumni section, which makes it real. He won't be back, and as sad as it makes me, I'm just glad he's not breaking his body every night or forcing himself to do something that makes him miserable anymore. And that we had him for as long as we did, because no matter what people say about how it ended, I do find him inspirational and I probably always will.
sXe for life.
(And before I forget, what did I have for supper tonight before the news even broke? Yeah, mini-corndogs... Ah, life's parallels...)