Like a lot of us, I’ve been talking about the end of Raw since Raw ended last night (July 7). Certain things will cause me to do that — things like CM Punk returning after a three month absence that may or may not have been mysterious, filling in for an “injured” Cody Rhodes and ending Sami Zayn’s long-sought-after first WWE title reign just nine days after it began.
A Ride or Die Sami fan from waaay back, I was bummed. But as I try to with this weird, wonderful pastime of ours, I told myself pro
wrestling is a story that never ends. Nearly every character and story beat can be reframed or moved on from, it just takes a good angle that suits the performer. That kind of thinking does encourage fantasy booking, which has its pros and cons as well. But as long as you don’t come to expect or demand a company will deliver what you wanted, fantasy booking is part of the fun of being a wrestling fan.
I don’t know think AEW World champion (for now) Maxwell Jacob Friedman was fantasy booking when he posted this to his Instagram Story, otherwise he probably wouldn’t have deleted it:
That’s Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania IX, where he won the then-WWF title from Yokozuna immediately after Yokozuna had beaten Bret Hart for it. According to Hart — Punk’s idol, as he frequently reminded us before returning to WWE — Hogan politicked for the spot. Of the show closing moments, Hart wrote in his autobiography, Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling:
Fuji [Mr. Fuji, Yokozuna’s manager] stayed in the ring, absurdly challenging Hogan to a title match with Yoko right then and there. Yoko was still teetering from exhaustion and looking for a second wind that wasn’t there. Hulk Hogan blinked in astonishment at his sudden good fortune. As scripted, with my face buried in the crook of my arm, I waved him to avenge my loss. “Go get ’em, Hulk!’”
I was really thinking, “Go ahead, Hogan, take from me what I worked so hard to get. We’ll see just how long you last!”
And after the show, Hart says Hulk promised to “return the favor” and put him over down the road:
A few minutes later, Hogan came up to me excited and happy and said, ‘Thank you, brother. I won’t forget it. I’ll be happy to return the favor.“
I looked my old friend in the eye and said, “I’m going to remember that, Terry.“
Hogan left WWF/E by the end of that year without ever facing Hart in WWF/E again.
MJF, who like Zayn has called Punk a “piece of shit” in the past, isn’t alone in comparing Punk’s return title win to Hogan’s. Others are also pointing out Punk’s past criticism and mocking of the Hulkster in the process:
It’s not just WrestleMania 9, either…
There are more, but most include AI-generated graphics, and I already had to include one of those. You get the idea.
It’s not nearly as loud or prominent as the “Becky Hogan” noise was after Becky Lynch returned in Bayley’s spot at WrestleMania 41 (the internet loves nothing more than a chance to anonymously harass women), but it’s similar.
So why did I ramble on about fantasy booking and expectations? Because the parallels to Punk and Hogan seem to be a little too obvious, and because one of the things I thought as WWE recreated scenes from Money in the Bank 2011 last night was, “they have to realize this is almost an inversion of that story, right?” And then WWE released a Zayn promo from last night that ends with him weeping heartbrokenly.
Which isn’t to say that Punk has to become an overt heel. Like AEW, WWE seems to be leaning further into the kind of “beyond faces and heels” presentation we’ve seen from The Bloodline Saga since Roman Reigns reunited with The Usos. Rhodes is already well-established as a “polarizing” star. Punk and Zayn both got huge face reactions for their title wins, but that won’t necessarily mean they’ll be cheered everywhere. Punk certainly isn’t being “cheered” online today.
The expectation I’m setting myself up to be disappointed about isn’t Punk turning into Hogan. It’s that WWE will continue the story of his reign the same way they presented SmackDown’s top title last Friday when Sami was still champ: something its top stars are all angling for, and where the audience can make its own decisions about who to back, and for generally justifiable reasons.
With a lot of fans, Punk saying he’s finally learned that Hogan was right about how to get ahead in this business. Maybe he wanted to get back to the top for selfish reasons, or maybe he’ll say it was because he could make the place better for everyone from that position. Either way, I don’t think he’ll be universally booed any more than he’d be universally cheered outside of Chicagoland with his current character as champ.
And that’s the other part of why I’m in favor of committing to the current WWE title story involving lots of shades of gray. These characters are all already various shades of the color, especially for the subset of fans like us who know backstage stories like the one The Hitman shared about ‘Mania 9 above.
That’s what I think when I see MJF and others making the Punk/Hogan comparison. Am I setting myself up to be letdown by more PG programming? Where do you think Punk’s reign is headed? Did Max just see a chance to take a shot? Or d`id he inadvertently play along with WWE’s plan?
Use the comments below to “talk” about it with your fellow wrestling fans!
