A Special Thanks to CM Punk

Tonight it was made official that CM Punk was gone from WWE and wouldn't be coming back. He was moved to the Alumni section of WWE's site and the news of this quickly spread across the web. Soon after, "Thank You Punk" began trending on Twitter. Punk soon made a statement by tweeting: "Nope, Thank YOU. Thanks for all the help and support through the years. Health and happiness above all. Don't ever take any shit from anybody."

With Punk being my all time favorite wrestler, this news was expected, but it's still shocking to know that it's really over. But what he tweeted out really reminded me of why he's such an inspiration to me.

Regardless of what anyone says about him being an asshole or a jerk, CM Punk
cares. He cares about the fans and he cares about wrestling. He also appreciates your support and that was shown once again by his tweet this evening.

Since his wrestling career has now seemingly come to an end, I'd like to look back and some of the memories, moments, and matches that made me become the avid Punk fan I am today. But before I do that, I'd like to discuss why CM Punk is and always will be my favorite wrestler of all time.

Some of you may have heard this story before, but I think it bares repeating given the current occasion. Back in late 2007-early 2008, I quit watching wrestling. I guess you could say I "grew out of it" because only around 12 years old at the time and I didn't truly understand what wrestling was. I just like John Cena and Batista because that's who WWE positioned as the superheroes. I was the typical kid fan.

As I got older, my dad still watched wrestling so I'd see bits and pieces of Raw every now and then. One night in the fall/winter of 2010, I remember walking in while Raw was on and hearing a new voice on commentary and I was like "Who is that?" Turns out it was Punk. As you will probably remember, he got injured and began doing commentary while he recovered. He was arguably better than Cole and whoever else was doing it at the time.

A few weeks later in January of 2011, I came in the room while Raw was on to find CM Punk on top of the titantron vowing to jump off. I was like "Holy shit, is this guy crazy?" His way with words made everyone believe he was really going to do it. Then the way he mocked everyone for falling for it after he revealed he had a harness on the whole time was brilliant. I'd never seen anyone do something like that. I was intrigued and began tuning in every week to see what Punk was doing.

In the coming months, Punk began hitting his stride. From making Nexus beat themselves as an order of initiation to his feud with Randy Orton - it was all quality television that made me want to tune in each week.

Then the summer of 2011 rolled around and I was still tuning in periodically, but not regularly. Luckily I was tuning in on the night of June 27th, 2011. And it was on that night that CM Punk shocked the world of pro wrestling. It was also on that night that he became my favorite wrestler.

As he sat on the entrance ramp and expressed his frustrations with the way WWE does things, I began feeling like I did when I discovered wrestling for the first time as a child. It was honest, controversial, and the best promo in years.

As the rest of 2011 rolled along, I began tuning in regularly to see what Punk was going to do next because he had developed a rep for being unpredictable. Beyond that, he put on matches that were better than most happening at that time to back up his rally cry of being the best in the world.

By the time 2012 came along, I was a full fledged fan of Punk and wanted to learn more about him. I began doing research and discovered Independent Wrestling. One company in particular that I discovered was Ring of Honor. I began looking into wrestling and watching interviews with Punk and learning about the art of wrestling.

Soon I found myself with a passion for professional wrestling. I couldn't get enough and I'm the same way to this day. It's that passion that led me to start my Twitter account that was originally called "Pro Wrestling Tweets". It's that passion that led me to begin writing articles on wrestling. It's that passion that led me to just want to learn more about wrestling.

And that passion was started thanks to one wrestler - CM Punk.

So, I not only have to thank CM Punk for all the memories, moments, and classic matches that made me a fan of his. But I also have to thank him for bringing back my passion for professional wrestling.

In the coming days, I plan to work on an article detailing some of the best moments and matches from Punk's illustrious career, but I felt like I should share this first.

As always, thanks for reading and feel free to tweet me your thoughts on Twitter (@EthanPWT)!