CM Punk

Phil Brooks
File:Cm punk.jpg
Born	October 26, 1978 Chicago, Illinois
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	CM Punk
Trained by	Ace Steel Danny Dominion Kevin Quinn Dave Taylor Dave Finlay William Regal Raven
Debut	1999

Phillip "Phil" Brooks (born October 26, 1978), better known by his ring name CM Punk, is an American professional wrestler currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling on its ECW brand. Before debuting in ECW, he was best known for his work on the independent circuit, especially as a member of the Ring of Honor (ROH) roster where he was a former ROH World Champion, head trainer of the wrestling school and was considered to be one of the three icons of ROH (along with Samoa Joe and Homicide). His professional wrestling gimmick is that of a follower of "straight edge", a culture which he follows in real life and of which he utilizes different aspects depending on his alignment.

Career

Early career

Punk was born in Chicago, Illinois and first wanted to be a professional wrestler after witnessing Roddy Piper crack a coconut over Jimmy Snuka's head during an edition of the Piper's Pit. His first venture into wrestling was a stint in a backyard wrestling federation called the "Lunatic Wrestling Federation" with his friends in the mid-late 1990s where he first started using the name CM Punk as part of the tag team the Chick Magnets along with CM Venom, when another performer skipped out on the card[1]. He would later change that CM stood for Chick Magnet and instead portrayed the initials as having no meaning by giving different answers when asked, including "Cookie Monster", "Crooked Moonsault", "C. Montgomery Burns", "Charles Manson". After leaving the federation because unlike his friends Punk genuinely wanted to be a wrestler and saw it as more than simple fun Punk enrolled as a student at the "Steel Domain" wrestling school in Minnesota, where he was trained by Ace Steel, Danny Dominion and Kevin Quinn to become a professional wrestler and as part of the training wrestled at St. Paul's Steel Domain Wrestling. It was in the Steel Domain that he met Scott Colton, who later adopted the stage name Colt Cabana. Brooks befriended Colton and spent most of the time working in the same independent promotions with Colton, as opponents or allies. In the independents Punk, along with fellow Steel Domain graduates Colt Cabana, Chuckie Smoothe, Adam Pearce and manager Dave Prazak, formed a professional wrestling stable named the Gold Bond Mafia.

Punk's home promotion for his early career is usually considered to be Independent Wrestling Association: Mid-South (IWA:Mid-South). During Punk's time in IWA:Mid-South he had high profile feuds with his friend Colt Cabana and Chris Hero and rose to the top of the roster winning the IWA Mid-South Light-Heavyweight Championship twice and the IWA Mid-South Heavyweight Championship on five separate occasions. Notably his feud with Hero included a 56-minute TLC match, a 93-minute two out of three falls match and several 60-minute draws. Punk's matches with Cabana led him to getting a job in Ring of Honor. During his time in IWA:Mid-South he would also meet, wrestle against and become a friend of Eddie Guerrero. From February 2003 until May 2004 Punk refused to wrestle for IWA:Mid-South, which Punk claims was in protest to Ian Rotten's treatment of Chris Hero; however, Hero has stated he believes there were other reasons and Rotten's treatment of him was just an excuse by Punk to stop working for the company, but eventually he returned and continued to wrestle as well as be a commentator for IWA:Mid-South until 2005 when he was signed to World Wrestling Entertainment. His last match in IWA:Mid-South was on July 2, 2005 in which he had a sixty minute time limit draw with Delirious followed by a farewell speech.

Ring of Honor and Total Nonstop Action

File:Punkcabana.jpg

CM Punk with Colt Cabana as the ROH Tag Team Champions, the first championship Punk won in Ring of Honor.

Punk joined Ring of Honor initially as a babyface, due to ROH employing a position with emphasis on wrestling and less on promos. At the same time Punk joined the wrestling promotion NWA:Total Nonstop Action, where he was soon paired with Julio Dinero as sidekicks for Raven as part of The Gathering.

Punk started climbing the ranks of ROH with notable achievements including being managed by Bobby Heenan at the Second Anniversary show during the tournament to crown the first ROH Pure Champion, however he came in second, losing to A.J. Styles in the finals, and winning the ROH Tag Team Championship twice with Colt Cabana, both times defeating The Briscoe Brothers to win the championship.

Meanwhile in TNA on February 25, 2004 Punk had a physical scuffle with Teddy Hart that was broken up by Sabu outside of a restaurant shortly before a TNA show stemming from an ROH show in which Hart performed three unplanned spots putting several other wrestlers in danger of injury. Despite popular belief he was not released from TNA for this incident, and it had no real consequences on his TNA career. According to Punk he stopped appearing on TNA after being informed by TNA officials that he and Dinero had not gotten over as heels, having turned on Raven becoming a tag team managed by their old rival James Mitchell, and so the angle had been put on hold. Punk ended ties with TNA during the Rob Feinstein controversy when TNA was pulling wrestlers from ROH, such as A.J. Styles and Christopher Daniels, to break ties to Feinstein. Punk instead chose to quit TNA to continue to compete in and help ROH. His contract with TNA ran out almost a year later.

In ROH Punk faced off against ROH World Champion Samoa Joe for the championship in a famous three match series. The first match, on June 12, 2004 at World Title Classic in Dayton, Ohio, resulted in a 60 minute time-limit draw when neither Punk nor Joe could pin or cause the other to submit in the sixty minutes. The second match between Samoa Joe and CM Punk was planned to have occurred on December 4, 2004 but because Steve Corino was pulled from a match with Samoa Joe by Pro Wrestling ZERO-ONE the second match was hastily rescheduled on October 11, 2004 for October 16 in Punk's hometown of Chicago, Illinois. At Joe vs. Punk II on October 16 they wrestled to a second 60 minute draw.

File:Punkrohchampion.jpg

CM Punk as the ROH World Champion.

In June 2005, Punk accepted a deal with World Wrestling Entertainment, after wrestling try-out matches on its Sunday Night HEAT show. Even though he had accepted the deal, Punk went on to defeat Austin Aries to win the ROH World Championship on June 18, 2005 at Death Before Dishonor III with the Pepsi Plunge.

Immediately after the match Punk proceeded to turn heel and started an angle where he threatened to bring the ROH World Championship to WWE with him. For weeks, Punk teased the ROH locker room and the ROH fans as well as mocking the championship he possessed, going so far as to sign his WWE contract on it. A notable part of this angle was Mick Foley making several ROH appearances, attempting to convince Punk to do the right thing and defend the title on his way out.

On August 12, 2005 in Dayton, Ohio Punk lost the ROH World Championship to James Gibson in a four corner elimination match consisting of himself, Gibson, Samoa Joe and Christopher Daniels when Gibson countered the Pepsi Plunge with a Super Tigerbomb. His final match in Ring of Honor took place on August 13, 2005 against Colt Cabana in a 2 out of 3 falls match, which he lost. In his last match, he was visibly crying, and was showered with streamers when he posed in the middle of the ring.

Punk reappeared at the ROH show Unscripted II on February 11, 2006, due to a severe snowstorm which prevented several ROH wrestlers from attending. Punk asked for permission from WWE official Tommy Dreamer to appear so he could help out ROH. Dreamer approved and Punk appeared during the night to fill gaps where others were supposed to appear. In the main event, he teamed with Bryan Danielson to wrestle and ultimately defeat Jimmy Rave and Adam Pearce.

Ohio Valley Wrestling

Punk was assigned to Ohio Valley Wrestling, a WWE developmental territory. On September 26, 2005 in his OVW television debut, Punk suffered a ruptured eardrum and broken nose at the hands of Danny Inferno, after he was hit by an overly stiff right hand. Despite the injury, Punk finished the match and quickly recovered.

On November 9, 2005, Punk became the OVW Television Champion after defeating Ken Doane. This led immediately to a feud between Punk and Brent Albright, who had previously been feuding with Doane for the television championship and had lost his chance to wrestle Doane after Punk had hit him with a chair so he himself could wrestle Doane. This led to a series of matches, including one which ended in overtime with Albright having Punk submit to Albright's finisher, the Crowbar, however Punk was able to keep the championship as he had not agreed to the extra time. On January 4, 2006, Punk lost the OVW Television Championship during a three way dance between himself, Albright and Doane. Doane was injured halfway through the match and could not continue and was replaced by Aaron "The Idol" Stevens. Punk submitted to Albright's Crowbar and was eliminated but after interference by Punk, Stevens was able to get the pin on Albright to become the new OVW Television Champion.

File:Punkwinsovw.jpg

CM Punk after winning the OVW Heavyweight Championship, ending his long feud with Brent Albright.

The feud continued after a short period in which Albright and Punk were a tag team, but they became opponents again after Albright wanted the respect of Punk who would never give it to him and instead proceeded to "punk out" (get the better of) Albright repeatedly. This continued for weeks with Punk always getting the better of Albright until a double turn occurred on February 1, 2006 when Albright turned heel during a tag match allowing The Spirit Squad to beat Punk and, in doing so, turning Punk face.

During this time CM Punk had a minor appearance at WrestleMania 22 on April 2, 2006 as one of the gangsters who rode a 1930s era car to the ring before John Cena's entrance.

When Matt Cappotelli vacated the OVW Heavyweight Championship due to a brain tumor, a tournament was held to crown a new champion. The finals were Brent Albright vs CM Punk with Albright defeating Punk to become the new champion. Punk and Albright continued their feud with Albright becoming more and more unstable and paranoid about maintaining his championship after several close call matches against Punk, resulting in acts such as threatening Maria. On May 3, 2006, Punk finally defeated Brent Albright in a strap match to win the OVW Heavyweight Championship. As champion, Punk retained the title in matches against opponents such as Shad Gaspard.

On July 28, 2006 Punk and Seth Skyfire defeated Shad Gaspard and the Neighborhoodie (the Gang Stars) to win the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship at a house show. With the victory Punk became the second OVW wrestler to have held each of the promotion's three championships, following Brent Albright, and along with Skyfire the first to hold two championships simultaneously. They would lose the Tag Team Championship on August 2, 2006 to Deuce Shade and Dice Domino after an injured Skyfire tagged in an already injured Punk.

This lead to a feud between Punk and Skyfire after a rematch for the Tag Team Championship on August 7, 2006 in which a healthy Punk purposefully tagged in an injured Skyfire to be beaten by Deuce 'N Domino. On August 30, 2006 a match was scheduled to take place between Punk and Skyfire for the OVW Heavyweight Championship however prior to the match Skyfire was attacked by Charles "The Hammer" Evans, who Skyfire had also been feuding with, and was replaced in the match by Chet the Jet who pinned Punk to win the OVW Heavyweight Championship. As he no longer possessed the championship OVW no longer required him so he was removed from the roster and brought up to the WWE roster full time.

Punk made a surprise guest appearance on the December 16, 2006 edition of OVW TV, teaming with Fearless Jack Bull in a tag team match against Joey Mercury and Aaron "The Idol" Stevens.

ECW Brand

On June 24, 2006 Punk made his ECW debut during a house show at the former ECW Arena, defeating Stevie Richards. He made his TV debut on the July 4 episode of ECW on Sci Fi, cutting a brief pre-taped face promo about his straight edge lifestyle emphasizing the disciplinary aspects of being drug and alcohol free. Punk made his TV wrestling debut on August 1, 2006 at the Hammerstein Ballroom, defeating Justin Credible. CM Punk established himself in ECW by going undefeated, defeating opponents such as Stevie Richards and Christopher W. Anderson.

Soon after, Punk began feuding with Mike Knox after Knox's girlfriend, Kelly Kelly, was seen to have feelings for Punk. Punk defeated Mike Knox in their first singles match (to qualify for the Extreme Elimination Chamber at December to Dismember) as well as the rematch, after which Kelly Kelly celebrated CM Punk's victory over her boyfriend. Punk then went on to team with D-Generation X and The Hardy Boyz in their Survivor Series match against Rated-RKO, Knox, Johnny Nitro and Gregory Helms, a match where all the participants on DX's side survived elimination. At December to Dismember, Punk participated in the Extreme Elimination Chamber, but was the first person eliminated.

Following this, Punk entered into a feud with Hardcore Holly, who ended Punk's six month unbeaten streak on January 9,2007. Punk then went on to feud with Matt Striker, who gave him his second loss since being in ECW on January 30.

Punk will make his Wrestlemania debut at Wrestlemania 23 on April 1, 2007 in the Money in the Bank ladder match. He qualified for the match by pinning Johnny Nitro on the February 20 edition of ECW on Sci Fi.

In wrestling

File:AnacondaVice.jpg

CM Punk locks in the Anaconda Vise on Hardcore Holly.

• Finishing moves

• Anaconda Vice / Anaconda Vise (Anaconda vice or arm triangle choke)
• Pepsi Plunge (Top rope double underhook facebuster)
• Shining wizard

• Signature moves

• .45 Special (Reverse Indian deathlock surfboard)
• Crooked Moonsault (Split-legged moonsault)
• Devil Lock (Texas cloverleaf with armlock)
• Devil Lock DDT (Hammerlock legsweep DDT)
• Inertia DDT (Turnbuckle tornado DDT)
• Jackie Chan (Sitting in corner grasps the top rope with one hand on each side, when opponent attempts to pull Punk off ropes by his legs Punk performs a backflip landing on his feet)
• Judo Rush (Repeated slaps, backhand chops and a spinning reverse slap, followed by a roundhouse kick to the side of the head, usually followed by a ura-nage)
• Pepsi Twist (Jumping hammerlock short range lariat)
• Punk-Handle Piledriver (Pumphandle reverse piledriver)
• Welcome to Chicago, Motherfucker (Double underhook backbreaker)
• Arm triangle facebuster
• Arm twist ropewalk legdrop
• Arm wrench followed by stepping a leg over the wrenched arm and performing a mule kick with the leg below the opponent's face
• Charging high knee to standing opponent in corner followed by a bulldog
• Facewash
• Rebound corkscrew flipping neckbreaker
• Reverse frankensteiner
• Slingshot senton
• Snapmare followed by a dropkick to the back of the opponent's head

• Theme music

• IWA: Mid-South

• 99 Problems – Jay-Z
• A Call for Blood – Hatebreed.
• ¡Olé! – The Bouncing Souls

• Ring of Honor

• A Call for Blood – Hatebreed
• Miseria Cantare - The Beginning – AFI
• Cult of Personality – Living Colour (during Punk's 2005 heel turn)
• Night Train – The Bouncing Souls (at Punk: The Final Chapter)

• World Wrestling Entertainment

• This Fire Burns – Killswitch Engage

Championships and accomplishments

• Hoosier Pro Wrestling

• HPW Tag Team Championship (1 time)

• Independent Wrestling Association: Mid-South

• IWA Mid-South Light Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
• IWA Mid-South Heavyweight Championship (5 times)

• International Wrestling Cartel

• IWC Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

• Mid-American Wrestling

• MAW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

• NWA Cyberspace

• NWA Shockwave Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Julio Dinero

• NWA Revolution

• NWA Revolution Heavyweight Championship

• Ohio Valley Wrestling

• OVW Television Championship (1 time)
• OVW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
• OVW Southern Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Seth Skyfire

• Revolution Championship Wrestling

• RCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

• Ring of Honor

• ROH Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Colt Cabana
• ROH World Championship (1 time)

• St. Paul Championship Wrestling

• SPCW Northern States Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

• Steel Domain Wrestling

• SDW Northern States Television Championship (2 times)

• Wrestling Observer Newsletter

• 5 Star Match: vs Samoa Joe (ROH Joe vs Punk 2; October 16, 2004)

• WWE Magazine

• 2006 Newcomer of the Year

Gimmick

Punk has adopted his real life following of the straight edge movement as his professional wrestling gimmick, however the gimmick uses different elements of Punk's personality and the beliefs of the straight edge movement depending on the alignment. While portraying a face, the gimmick tends to be that of Punk's normal personality, largely indifferent to others who drink alcohol, smoke tobacco, partake in recreational drug use or have promiscuous sexual behavior as well as emphasizing the social discipline involved with abstinence. Conversely, his heel personality tends to portray that of a hardliner, especially the elitist and superiority attitudes possessed by hardliners defined by Punk's common mantra during heel promos that, because he is straight edge, he is "better than you". Irrelevant of alignment Punk performs the straight edge symbol of crossing his arms in an X formation while having the letter X written on the back of his wrists, usually drawn on his wrist tape.

An integral part of Punk's gimmick is that of the numerous tattoos that adorn his body some of which have come to become symbols associated with Punk as well as mantras and declarations that have been integrated into his gimmick. The tattoos as a whole, due to their large quantity and variety, have also become an attribute identifiable to Punk. The most important of the individual tattoos in Punk's character, whether through association, symbol, or mantra, are:

• A Pepsi logo on his left shoulder inspired the names of two of his signature moves. He got the tattoo as a joke as many fraternity members in his school were getting beer logos tattooed on their body, so Punk, a keen Pepsi drinker, chose to receive a Pepsi tattoo to emphasize his straight edge beliefs. The tattoo is also a reference to former Minor Threat guitarist Brian Baker, who had a Coca-Cola tattoo and explained this by saying "I like Coca-Cola". When people inquire about Punk's Pepsi tattoo, he often replies "I like Pepsi" in a similar fashion. The Pepsi logo has become a symbol of Punk himself, wearing the logo on his ring gear in the independent circuit as well as a slightly modified Pepsi logo being used as part of his TitanTron entrance video.
• The words "Straight Edge" are spelled out on his stomach. This tattoo is one of Punk's oldest tattoos and has been referred to by Punk as his identity.
• A large piece on his left arm which is entitled "Luck is for losers", a mantra used on some of the choices for Punk's first ECW T-shirt, that features twists on numerous symbols of good luck.
• His knuckles spell out when placed together "DRUG FREE", drug on the right knuckles and free on the left. This tattoo is often used in wrestling as a taunting gesture to the crowd and opponents.

• The symbol for Cobra, from the G.I. Joe comics and cartoons adorns his right shoulder

Punk's character and gimmick have been parodied for comedy in the wrestling federation CHIKARA with the character CP Munk, the straight edge chipmunk. The character is simply a chipmunk mascot costume which includes references to Punk such as X marked wrist tape, a Pepsi logo on the costume's left shoulder and uses a sped up version of Punk's best known independent circuit theme song Miseria Cantare - The Beginning, as performed by the band AFI.

Personal life

Punk was born, raised and lived in Chicago, Illinois with a father with alcohol problems, two younger sisters and a brother who grew up to also be a professional wrestler, using the ring name Mike Broox, however Punk and Mike had a falling out several years ago after Mike embezzled several thousand dollars from the Lunatic Wrestling Federation. While viewing his alcoholic father and reading that alcoholism may have been hereditary Punk made an agreement with himself to abstain from drinking alcohol to prevent the situation from occurring. During high school Punk discovered the punk rock music genre, most importantly Minor Threat, and by extension found the punk subculture which in turn lead to the discovery of the straight edge culture, which Punk himself adopted. After high school and beginning his wrestling career Punk moved out of the family house and lived for a time with fellow professional wrestler Allison Danger. Punk later moved into an apartment with Ace Steel, however since then Punk has made reference to living alone in Chicago. Punk worked other jobs to support himself in his early career, the last of which was as a laboratory technician for Underwriters Laboratories until he was fired due to poor conduct and work ethic in October, 2002. Punk has stated being fired was the happiest day of his life and promised himself to never work a day job again.

In relationships Punk has made reference to two ex-girlfriends, though not by name, in his early career and later was romantically linked to professional wrestlers Shannon Spruill and Tracy Brookshaw, both of whom had managed him in ROH. Punk is currently dating WWE Diva Maria, which she confirmed in an interview with The Sun after pictures of the two kissing surfaced on the Internet.

Non-wrestling TV appearances

On October 31, 2006, CM Punk joined the The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS) to shoot the Sci Fi Channel special Ghost Hunters Live, which was a six-hour show broadcast live Halloween night from the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado. Initially skeptical about what he might find, Punk claimed to have heard children giggling and footsteps when there weren't any children booked into the hotel. During his time there he made some comments about Colt Cabana (claiming "a friend of his lost a toe once" in reference to a story about Cabana having lost a toe in a car crash when he only bruised it), Samoa Joe and internet fans (who herald him because of his history in ROH). Punk also appeared on the February 16, 2004 episode of Monster Garage with Samoa Joe, Aaron Aguilera, and other wrestlers.

External links

• Official Website
• WWE Profile
• OWW Profile
• CM Punk at IMDb
• CM Punk interview