WWE’s next Premium Live Event will be the Elimination Chamber show in Chicago, Illinois on February 28, while AEW’s next pay-per-view offering will be Revolution on March 15, and both of those shows will feature big championship matches involving CM Punk and MJF. Punk will defend the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against Finn Balor, and MJF will defend the AEW World Championship against Hangman Page in a match where MJF will get to decide the stipulation, which at the time of writing has not yet been revealed.
It’s funny how life works sometimes as there was once a world we all lived in where the idea of Punk and MJF both being world champions in separate companies seemed alien. This is particularly poignant considering that at one point in time, Punk and MJF looked destined to do this dance forever.
If you go back and look through the short history of AEW, a few feuds, rivalries, and storylines stand out as being modern classics and the story of CM Punk and MJF is one of them. Maxwell Jacob Friedman finally coming face-to-face with the man he idolized growing up, only to reveal that he felt betrayed by Punk for walking out on wrestling in 2014 because that was a point in MJF’s life where he needed someone to look up to. The MJF origin story as to why he acts the way he does was framed as being Punk’s fault, but MJF had felt like he had moved past the need for someone like Punk to be in his life and wanted to put the old dog down once and for all. However, Punk was not going to go gently into that good night.
Promo battles, matches against everyone in The Pinnacle, and even a match in Chicago that technically saw MJF beat Punk not once, but twice, all lead to this. A match so barbaric that AEW has not done one since this night, AEW Revolution 2022, CM Punk vs. MJF in a Dog Collar Match. With all the talk about Punk, MJF, and stipulations as of late, we felt like it was only right to roll back the clock a few years and shine a spotlight one of the most gruesome, emotional, and critically acclaimed bloodbaths of the decade. Let’s shine a spotlight on the Dog Collar Match between CM Punk and MJF from AEW Revolution 2022!
There Will Be Blood
For some matches, the action begins before the bell has even rung and this is a perfect example. Living Colour’s “Cult of Personality” blares over the speakers in the arena only to be interrupted by MJF’s royalty free theme that he still uses to this day as a way to get in Punk’s head. However, MJF isn’t the only one to play mind games with the entrances, and after weeks of begging for the CM Punk of old to show up at Revolution, that’s exactly what he got. The white basketball shorts, the black jacket with the three X’s on the back, and of course, the remixed version of the “Terminator” theme, or as anyone with common sense, a search engine, or ears would call it, “Miseria Cantare” by AFI, a song so good that the WWE 2K producers have included it in the upcoming Showcase Mode about Punk.
In the most complimentary way I can put it, this match is ugly. There is an unrivaled sense of anticipation heading into this match and by the end of it you’re almost begging these two men to stop because they’ve gone so far past the point of no return that you start to feel uncomfortable. Punk begins proceedings by toying with his food, playing with the fact that he is in one of his comfort zones from his past while MJF is left wondering just what has he actually gotten himself into. Naturally, when the tide turns in MJF’s favor and he busts Punk open and leaves him with a fresh set of chain-like tattoos on his back, he asks for a f****** microphone to rub in his work even further.
As the match goes on, the blood loss on Punk’s side means that he can’t really get any sort of momentum behind him, but can use his experience to work down a body part that will aid him later on. In this case, Punk targets MJF’s hand so that any sort of hold or lift feels painful which will create some breathing room, and even some counters as he lands a nasty Tombstone on the apron after MJF couldn’t hit the move himself because his fingers were in agony. When the blood starts flowing for MJF, the fans come alive at the sight of the heel getting what has been coming to him, but all of this is for nothing when Punk wraps the chain around his knee and crashes into the steel steps trying to take MJF’s head off.
The closing stretch sees the thumbtacks introduced, even more blood, and when MJF knows his bag of tricks is empty, he calls for Wardlow and the Dynamite Diamond Ring. The only problem is that Wardlow has already decided where his loyalties lie. Wardlow can’t find the ring which allow Punk to hit the GTS into the tacks, and Wardlow leaves the ring for Punk to deliver the finishing blow which mercifully puts MJF down for the three count.
A Sad Aftermath
Having watched the CM Punk run in AEW from start to finish, I have always stood by the idea that if Punk decided to call it a day after this match, his run in AEW would have gone down as perhaps the single best run anyone has had in any wrestling company. From the debut in the United Center to the unbeaten streak, to every hoop that MJF made him jump through to get to this moment where he unleashed the monster that everyone thought had died in Ring of Honor back in 2005, it was wrestling perfection.
At the time, it seemed like Punk and AEW were a match made in heaven, but that’s what made the eventual breakup so painful for many fans. Part of the reason why some fans don’t even acknowledge what Punk has done post All In London 2023 is because what the “Second City Saint” did in AEW was so special that they are probably still angry at the fact that it didn’t end up working out, and to those people I say just move on, it’s wrestling, it’s not that deep.
We all know what happened with Punk following AEW Revolution 2022. He would take a few weeks off before returning to go after Hangman Page and the AEW World Championship, which on paper made all the sense in the world, but in reality it became the first domino to fall in a series of events that would lead to Punk returning to WWE at Survivor Series 2023. Brawl Out, Brawl In, there was probably a brawl somewhere in between for all we know, the weight of success that Punk brought to AEW began to crack the foundation of the entire company, and it’s only recently where it seems that AEW has gotten back on its feet and moved on.
As for MJF, he was naturally angry at what Wardlow did to him during this match and wanted to make him pay. Their feud built to an eventual showdown at AEW Double or Nothing 2022, but what was meant to be Wardlow’s crowning moment and launching pad into the main event scene turned into a media circus surrounding MJF who was threatening to walk out of the company. Obviously, MJF didn’t walk out and is not only still in AEW to this day but is the current AEW World Champion at the time of writing, but the “Salt of the Earth” would miss the entire summer after calling Tony Khan a “f****** mark” on national TV, and spent all of 2023 essentially using the AEW World Championship as a bargaining chip in order to get a new deal with AEW, or a fresh one from WWE.
And what about Wardlow? He’s been mismanaged, mishandled, and booked aimlessly basically since his feud with MJF ended, and is currently on the sidelines with an injury he sustained in his AEW return after missing close to a year through other injuries and non-wrestling projects.
Read the full article here
