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AFTERNOON THOUGHTS: CM PUNK AND SAMOA JOE WILL NEVER MAKE IT AS TOP STARS IN THIS BUSINESS

CM Punk.

CM Punk is a boring, sloppy worker.

CM Punk takes the business too seriously.  He's a mark for himself and his own matches.

CM Punk has an inflated reputation thanks to the Internet.

CM Punk was a bottom-level guy in TNA.

CM Punk is a big fish in the ROH pond and nothing more.

CM Punk was a star in ROH because he could do whatever he wanted for as long as he wanted.  Put him on WWE TV for four minutes and see if he can get over.

CM Punk will never get out of developmental working that style.

CM Punk is Paul Heyman's boy.  His push is dead without Heyman in WWE championing his cause..

CM Punk is King of the Indies, the type of wrestler who doesn't get the WWE style.

CM Punk is good enough for the ECW brand, but would be eaten up on the real WWE shows.

CM Punk can't cut promos (seriously, a WWE employee once told me that).

CM Punk doesn't party like the boys should.  He doesn't respect the business (seriously, a WWE wrestler once told me that.)

CM Punk tapes his wrists up and exposes the business. He'll never make it to TV.  (Seriously, Tony Atlas said that, while Punk was ECW champion!)

CM Punk is the WWE World champion.

Samoa Joe.

Samoa Joe is fat.

Samoa Joe doesn't look like a real wrestler.

Samoa Joe is too small to work like a big man.

Samoa Joe is a big fish in the small ROH pond.

Samoa Joe was a star in ROH because everyone else was too tiny to get a job anywhere else.

Samoa Joe does that UFC style that doesn't get over.

Samoa Joe did WWE TV jobs.  We could never push him here.

Samoa Joe is only good enough to be an X-Division guy.

Samoa Joe looks good because he's working AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels.

Samoa Joe is just an indy guy and fans only care about WWE-level stars.

Samoa Joe only gets over because he's got others bouncing all over the ring.  Put him in with a real star and he'll be exposed as not being as good as you say he is.

Samoa Joe doesn't know how to carry himself like a star (seriously, a TNA employee once told me that).

Samoa Joe can't cut good promos, all he can do is scream (Yes, seriously, a TNA employee once told me that.)

Samoa Joe is the TNA World champion.

By all accounts, CM Punk never should have been WWE World champion.  Samoa Joe never should have been TNA World champion.  I've just listed some of the comments made behind their backs by detractors who either thought the hype was just that or that they themselves were better than these young kids coming in from ROH and the independent scene.

Politically, everything was working against them.  They didn't look like the traditional cookie-cutter muscle-by-numbers professional wrestler often courted by the national companies.  They had unique backgrounds, which some believed would make it harder to get them over to the national audiences.  They were wrestlers who had traveled the world and perfected a style different from what WWE and TNA pushed as what wrestling should be.

Now, we are several weeks into a CM Punk title reign that has seen the Raw ratings stay strong, despite the loss of names like Triple H and Jim Ross from WWE's Monday Night powerhouse series.  We are several months into a Samoa Joe title reign that has seen him have very good matches on independent shows, Impacts, TNA house shows and PPVs alike.

This Sunday, Samoa Joe vs. Booker T at TNA's Victory Road.

July 20th, CM Punk vs. Batista at WWE's Great American Bash.

Whether these title reigns end up being long runs, something that is unlikely given the way title belts are bounced around these days or whether they are short runs that will eventually become the first of many title wins for each of these talents, these two friends and former in-ring adversaries have something new in common. They have both proven their critics wrong. 

Samoa Joe and CM Punk have proven they are stars and that they can carry the ball. TNA's main event picture certainly isn't falling apart with Joe at the helm, although like everything else in TNA, the creative end could always be better. Fans aren't fleeing Mondays for Fridays with the WWE championship and Triple H gone and Punk as the new titleholder.

Joe and Punk have staked their claims. Even if WWE unceremoniously tries to kill Punk off by putting the belt on Batista in Long Island in a few weeks, it won't matter.  If Samoa Joe ends up losing momentum after the feud with Kevin Nash many Joe fans are dreading or being booked into some TNA angle that makes him look like a whiner (again), as opposed to an ass-kicker, it won't matter.

They have already proved everyone wrong and broken through to the top-tier.  As long as those in management positions realize and accept that, Joe and Punk are made. Their title runs may not last forever, but at some point, they'll be looked to by management to take the reigns again, because they've already proven that they can handle it.

If WWE and TNA choose to make money with these exceptional talents, the early criticisms I've mentioned above will look as silly five years from now as Eric Bischoff firing Steve Austin and WCW hiring Vince Russo does today in hindsight.

Punk and Joe, World champions.

Who'da thunk it? 

Certainly not a few people that are quietly spending their time between eating crow and playing political games by kissing the "new" champs' rear-ends backstage, that's for sure.

Mike Johnson can be reached at Mike@PWInsider.com.

 

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