Punk Walks Out of WWE

[Guest TheGreatPuma]

The Punk chants are really stupid to me. I don't think that's really WWE's fault. Taking over the show with Yes chants or Daniel Bryan chants is far more understandable. This seems like fans just trying to get themselves over.

I wouldn't doubt there's some of that but on the other side of the coin there is a legit strong connection with the fans and CM Punk and that's going to be the big push for CM Punk chants iMo.

[Sidebottom]

The Punk chants are really stupid to me. I don't think that's really WWE's fault. Taking over the show with Yes chants or Daniel Bryan chants is far more understandable. This seems like fans just trying to get themselves over.

Or, you know, they just really like CM Punk.

[Sean Liska]

I think fans chanting CM Punk during a Daniel Bryan match goes to what Dylan said after the Rumble. People enjoy paying money to come to shows and try to disrupt them now - it's part of the experience. They're getting a 25 minute Daniel Bryan main event? Time to find something else to be upset about. It's quite the interesting change. Austin had much better reasoning for walking out in 2002, was much more popular than Punk, and no one chanted for him.

[SteveJRogers]

I think fans chanting CM Punk during a Daniel Bryan match goes to what Dylan said after the Rumble. People enjoy paying money to come to shows and try to disrupt them now - it's part of the experience. They're getting a 25 minute Daniel Bryan main event? Time to find something else to be upset about. It's quite the interesting change. Austin had much better reasoning for walking out in 2002, was much more popular than Punk, and no one chanted for him.

WHAT!?

 

WHAT!?

 

No seriously, you could interpret the "What" chants after the walkout as the fans honoring Austin in a way, even though they were used during promos that Austin wasn't involved with going back to that previous summer.

 

And to be a little fair, it was clear that, despite the screw up with booking Brock vs. Austin on free TV, they were trying different things and pushing new stars (i.e. Brock Lesnar), and Austin didn't walk out because they were bringing back "tired" acts and demanding Austin put them over, or have a "diminished" role in the pecking order of the Main Event scene.

 

BTW, that thing about diminished roles has been kind of bugging me about this. In an article I contributed to last year I made a quip about John Cena in kayfabe calling his 2012 his worse year as a professional, and my quip was that I was sure there are dozens of under pushed wrestlers who would kill to have a "down" year like Cena's 2012!

 

Kind of feel the same way here with Punk's 2013. Its not like they've shuffled him into mid-card hell, he was still getting Main Event treatment and his angles were treated as important angles to the ongoing narrative of the 2013 WWE year. So it wasn't like Punk was being ignored and undervalued the way his actions and words seem to indicate.

[FedEx227]

I think fans chanting CM Punk during a Daniel Bryan match goes to what Dylan said after the Rumble. People enjoy paying money to come to shows and try to disrupt them now - it's part of the experience. They're getting a 25 minute Daniel Bryan main event? Time to find something else to be upset about. It's quite the interesting change. Austin had much better reasoning for walking out in 2002, was much more popular than Punk, and no one chanted for him.

I just got a ticket bought for me to the March Raw in Chicago for the sole purpose of "WE SHOULD GO AND CHANT CM PUNK! TAKE OVER THE SHOW"

 

Not even kidding.

[Sean Liska]

I think fans chanting CM Punk during a Daniel Bryan match goes to what Dylan said after the Rumble. People enjoy paying money to come to shows and try to disrupt them now - it's part of the experience. They're getting a 25 minute Daniel Bryan main event? Time to find something else to be upset about. It's quite the interesting change. Austin had much better reasoning for walking out in 2002, was much more popular than Punk, and no one chanted for him.

I just got a ticket bought for me to the March Raw in Chicago for the sole purpose of "WE SHOULD GO AND CHANT CM PUNK! TAKE OVER THE SHOW"

 

Not even kidding.

 

I'm in Chicago and I've heard several instances of this! Crazy times we live in now.

[Jimmy Redman]

This Chicago Raw is going to be either immensely entertaining or excruciatingly annoying.

[FedEx227]

Yeah, I'm guessing annoying. I don't get the point honestly but I'll take a free ticket.

[WingedEagle]

I hope it doesn't continue. One could easily point to that and say the crowds just want to make noise and be disruptive as opposed to Bryan actually being over as a top guy.

[DMJ]

Would the people that mind the CM Punk chants today have been telling fans to "give Lex a chance" when the WCW crowds chanted "We Want Flair" in 91'?

 

I'm not saying that this sort of thing is awesome or annoying, I'm just saying, wrestling fans are entitled to chant what they want and if there are a thousand fans in a 20,000 person arena chanting "CM Punk," that's cool.

 

I went to a RAW a year or two ago and HBK was there (this was in the build to WM28 or 29, I believe). I had had a few adult beverages and started shouting "You screwed Bret!" (maybe it was more than a few) and no one joined in. In fact, I got a bunch of stares and angry faces. I shut my mouth pretty quickly.

 

Over time, the Punk chants will die down, especially as the WWE decreases the live sound on their shows and makes it less of a "thing" to hijack the show. Till then, I'm one of those people that would probably enjoy the experience of getting loud and unruly with a thousand of my fellow wrestling fans, cheering for who I want to even when "they" don't want me to. What's more 'merican than that?

[ohtani's jacket]

Would the people that mind the CM Punk chants today have been telling fans to "give Lex a chance" when the WCW crowds chanted "We Want Flair" in 91'?

Today's fans would have considered Flair washed up and got behind Pillman instead.

 

What I want to know is when did WWE crowds start doing that "this is awesome" crap.

[JerryvonKramer]

My interest in all this from a week or so ago has now waned because I've decided that I hate the fans as much as I hate modern WWE.

[SteveJRogers]

I went to a RAW a year or two ago and HBK was there (this was in the build to WM28 or 29, I believe). I had had a few adult beverages and started shouting "You screwed Bret!" (maybe it was more than a few) and no one joined in. In fact, I got a bunch of stares and angry faces. I shut my mouth pretty quickly.

Kind of a bad analogy since Shawn's heel character was able to play off of "YOU SCREWED BRET" but considering chanting that some 15 years later, and a few years after the hatchet had been buried between Shawn & Bret, that is the type of behavior that kind of turns non-scripted sports athletes off to fandom.

 

HELL, a Cub fan named Steve Bartman can no longer show his face in Wrigley Field after he botched a foul ball that was about to be caught by an outfielder in the 2003 NLCS!

 

Roger Maris should always have been treated as one of the greatest Yankees of all-time, back-to-back MVPs, 61 homers in 1961, solid glove, but Yankee fans HATED him for daring to break not only a beloved Yankee's all-time single season homerun record, but a guy that was brought to the team from Cleveland just a few years ago was having the audacity to do this while a Yankee who came up with the franchise a decade earlier, Mickey Mantle, (who also heard many boo-birds up to this point because he wasn't exactly Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio and Lou Gehrig rolled into one, like he was promised to be, this season was the turning point, and Mantle has been a beloved icon ever since) fell off the pace late in the year due to injuries.

 

It didn't help any that the poor guy played through injuries and never quite had the same years as he did in 1960-1961 and was pretty much run out of town as someone that was never a "true Yankee" (whatever THAT means). Granted Maris was a very introverted and private fellow who always carried chips on his shoulder, (hey reminds me a little of a certain wrestler from Chicago) but the fans never really accepted him, nor was he very forgiving of how they treated him. Though strides were made in the last 10 years of Maris' life (died of cancer in 1985) to bring him back into the Yankee fold (the Yankees would retire his jersey number #9, and have since treated his Yankee years with the proper respect) and fandom would, and to this day embrace him as the Yankee Legend he should be.

 

Point of this rambling being, YES this is Professional Wrestling, and yes "YOU SCREWED BRET" is part of Shawn Michaels' history, and as I said he DID work in playing off of the chants when he was a heel (both as DX and his brief return during the Hogan feud), but there are times where the way a fanbase reacts negatively towards a person can affect them, and by the same token the relationship between the athlete and the organization (be it a franchise or promotion).

 

Obviously this is a side note to chanting CM Punk's name when he is not on the show, as opposed to chanting for Bryan, or Ziggler, or Ryder or hell pick your favorite underpushed Superstar or Diva, but it is all connected in terms of how fans at shows, on communities like the internet, sports radio or whatever treat athletes in general.

[SteveJRogers]

My interest in all this from a week or so ago has now waned because I've decided that I hate the fans as much as I hate modern WWE.

Read my last post, take aside the fact that I'm talking American Baseball, but I'm curious about your perspective since Football fans tend to have bigger reputations for being notoriously viscous more so than any of the worse American professional sports towns known for their attitudes.

[JerryvonKramer]

My interest in all this from a week or so ago has now waned because I've decided that I hate the fans as much as I hate modern WWE.

Read my last post, take aside the fact that I'm talking American Baseball, but I'm curious about your perspective since Football fans tend to have bigger reputations for being notoriously viscous more so than any of the worse American professional sports towns known for their attitudes.

 

I don't know it's very hard for me to see any cross over between football ("soccer") fans and pro wrestling ones. The dynamic is so different, especially in these post-kayfabe days.

 

When fans boo their own players it's generally frowned on in all but the very worst circumstances. I tend not to like it. Fans who booed Arsenal first game of the season vs. Villa must be feeling pretty stupid right now (for example) and voices within the game criticised them for it when it happened.

 

But you get other scenarios: evil foreign owner sacks beloved manager (see Cardiff recently), will see fans chant for the old manager and voice their discontent at the chairman. Sometimes fans protest outside grounds at top level decisions, etc.

 

However, I'm a sneery so and so and my reaction has usually been that they need to grow up and learn that the only way they can make clubs sit up and take notice is to BOYCOTT games, not stage these childish protests or, y'know, pay money for a ticket to tell the owner he's a wanker or whatever. That's just stupid.

[NintendoLogic]

football ("soccer")

Oh, fuck off.

[JerryvonKramer]

Are you seriously telling me to fuck off, you total bitch?

 

Let me also tell you something: football is football for billions of people around the world. Billions. You want us to call it by a different name because 300 million Americans call another game that? How about you fuck off.

 

I HAVE to note that I mean soccer to avoid confusion, but I won't ever stop calling football, "football".

 

I'm watching NFL next season too by the way, I got into the Superbowl and think I'm going to enjoy it now I understand all the rules.

[JerryvonKramer]

Hey NL, why don't you come on a podcast to discuss this with me, that'll draw the ratings.

[NintendoLogic]

Dude, relax. I'm not pissed off at all (which would have been clearer if you had heard me say the words rather than just reading the text). I just think it's funny how you put soccer in quotation marks like it's a made-up word or something. The truth is, it's short for "association football." It's a perfectly legitimate term. Hell, it was coined in England.

[Loss]

Cut it out, guys.

[Coffey]

Gotta remember, not all fans are the same. A crowd that you might find annoying, someone else might find fun & hilarious. It's a different time to be a wrestling fan. Growing up during Hulkamania, I didn't have social media & whatnot to read varying pro-wrestling opinions & neither did anyone else. I also didn't see ECW until 1998. Nowadays, because of the crowd, the RAW after Wrestlemania is genuinely my favorite show of the year. At least it has been for the past couple of years. I think it's hilarious when the crowds go "into business for themselves" or whatever the fuck we're calling it this week. Everyone has access to shows & can talk to other fans & whatnot nowadays. It spreads like wildfire. If WWE presents a product that the majority of the fans don't like, they're going to dump on it. They're just having a good time. They bought a ticket they can do what they want.

 

WWE going to Toronto, Chicago or New York are really the only times I get excited for shows anymore, as far as cities are concerned. It's because I know the fans are passionate & aren't just going to sit on their hands all damn night.

[Matt D]

If I had to decide between going to Mania or the Raw after, I'd probably pick the Raw after. That's not just this year but in general right now.

[Timbo Slice]

Chants get started at wrestling shows all the time. Some work, some don't. Most of the times, it's someone too smart for their own good trying to get himself over. Most of the time, that fails.

 

The chants you hear aren't just a few people chanting. It's hundreds that turn into thousands because people think the chant is somewhat worthwhile to them. Does it mean it's smart? Of course not. But if people think chanting something like they do will make things enjoyable, they're going to chant it.

 

Punk leaving has been picked up on many outlets outside of the dirt sheets, meaning that the word is out there and people are going to make their opinions heard one way or the other. Coffey's right: Fans are going to chant what they want in regards to the product that's presented to them. But for the change to happen, they can't just chant it. They have to back it up with their dollar.

[WingedEagle]

My larger point was that a key argument in the Bryan push discussion has been pointing to how over he is with the crowds. If crowds become unfocused and out of control to the point that they're chanting for just about anything, you can pretty easily construct an argument that Bryan isn't as over as some would have you believe but rather one of many excuses for people to make noise.

[Migs]

My larger point was that a key argument in the Bryan push discussion has been pointing to how over he is with the crowds. If crowds become unfocused and out of control to the point that they're chanting for just about anything, you can pretty easily construct an argument that Bryan isn't as over as some would have you believe but rather one of many excuses for people to make noise.

But the chants on Monday night weren't random. It wasn't a "what?" chant ten years too late. They were for yet another "internet darling" that has been pushed heavily but not quite at the top level over the last several years. It doesn't mean Bryan isn't very over, it just means CM Punk is really over as well.