WWE’s next Premium Live Event will likely be the Elimination Chamber show in Chicago, Illinois on February 28, while AEW’s next pay-per-view offering will likely be Revolution on March 15, and each 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 make your mind up the stipulation, which on the time of writing has not yet been revealed.
It’s funny how life works sometimes as there was once a world all of us lived in where the concept of Punk and MJF each being world champions in separate corporations seemed alien. This is especially poignant considering that at one cut-off date, Punk and MJF looked destined to do that dance without end.
If you happen to return and leaf through the short history of AEW, a number of feuds, rivalries, and storylines stand out as being modern classics and the story of CM Punk and MJF is certainly one of them. Maxwell Jacob Friedman finally coming face-to-face with the person he idolized growing up, only to disclose that he felt betrayed by Punk for walking out on wrestling in 2014 because that was a degree in MJF’s life where he needed someone to look as much as. The MJF origin story as to why he acts the best way he does was framed as being Punk’s fault, but MJF had felt like he had moved past the necessity for somebody like Punk to be in his life and desired to put the old dog down once and for all. Nevertheless, 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 result in this. A match so barbaric that AEW has not done one since tonight, AEW Revolution 2022, CM Punk vs. MJF in a Dog Collar Match. With all of the speak about Punk, MJF, and conditions as of late, we felt prefer it was only right to roll back the clock a number of years and shine a highlight probably the most gruesome, emotional, and critically acclaimed bloodbaths of the last decade. Let’s shine a highlight on the Dog Collar Match between CM Punk and MJF from AEW Revolution 2022!
There Will Be Blood
For some matches, the motion begins before the bell has even rung and this can be a perfect example. Living Color’s “Cult of Personality” blares over the speakers in the sector only to be interrupted by MJF’s royalty free theme that he still uses to this present day as a method to get in Punk’s head. Nevertheless, MJF is not the just one to play mind games with the entrances, and after weeks of begging for the CM Punk of old to point out up at Revolution, that is exactly what he got. The white basketball shorts, the black jacket with the three X’s on the back, and naturally, 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 within the upcoming Showcase Mode about Punk.
In probably the most complimentary way I can put it, this match is ugly. There may be an unrivaled sense of anticipation heading into this match and by the tip of it you are almost begging these two men to stop because they’ve gone thus far past the purpose of no return that you simply begin to feel uncomfortable. Punk begins proceedings by toying along with his food, fidgeting with the incontrovertible fact that he’s in certainly 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.
Because the match goes on, the blood loss on Punk’s side implies that he cannot really get any type of momentum behind him, but can use his experience to work down a body part that may aid him afterward. On this case, Punk targets MJF’s hand in order that any type of hold or lift feels painful which can create some respiration 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 on the sight of the heel getting what has been coming to him, but all of that is for nothing when Punk wraps the chain around his knee and crashes into the steel steps attempting to take MJF’s head off.
The closing stretch sees the thumbtacks introduced, much more blood, and when MJF knows his bag of tricks is empty, he calls for Wardlow and the Dynamite Diamond Ring. The one problem is that Wardlow has already decided where his loyalties lie. Wardlow cannot find the ring which permit Punk to hit the GTS into the tacks, and Wardlow leaves the ring for Punk to deliver the ending blow which mercifully puts MJF down for the three count.
A Sad Aftermath
Having watched the CM Punk run in AEW from start to complete, I actually have all the time stood by the concept that if Punk decided to call it a day after this match, his run in AEW would have gone down as perhaps the one best run anyone has had in any wrestling company. From the debut within the United Center to the unbeaten streak, to each hoop that MJF made him jump through to get to this moment where he unleashed the monster that everybody thought had died in Ring of Honor back in 2005, it was wrestling perfection.
On the time, it appeared like Punk and AEW were a match made in heaven, but that is what made the eventual breakup so painful for a lot of fans. A part of the rationale 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’re probably still indignant on the incontrovertible fact that it didn’t find yourself understanding, and to those people I say just move on, it’s wrestling, it is not that deep.
Everyone knows what happened with Punk following AEW Revolution 2022. He would take a number of weeks off before returning to go after Hangman Page and the AEW World Championship, which on paper made all of the sense on the earth, but in point of fact it became the primary domino to fall in a series of events that might result in Punk returning to WWE at Survivor Series 2023. Brawl Out, Brawl In, there was probably a brawl somewhere in between for all we all know, the load of success that Punk dropped at AEW began to crack the muse of all the company, and it’s only recently where evidently AEW has gotten back on its feet and moved on.
As for MJF, he was naturally indignant at what Wardlow did to him during this match and desired 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 primary event scene changed into a media circus surrounding MJF who was threatening to walk out of the corporate. Obviously, MJF didn’t walk out and shouldn’t be only still in AEW to this present day but is the present AEW World Champion on the time of writing, however the “Salt of the Earth” would miss all the 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 so as to get a brand new cope with AEW, or a fresh one from WWE.
And what about Wardlow? He’s been mismanaged, mishandled, and booked aimlessly mainly since his feud with MJF ended, and is currently on the sidelines with an injury he sustained in his AEW return after missing near a yr through other injuries and non-wrestling projects.