QOTD #35: Memorabilia

Today’s Question: What’s your favorite piece of wrestling memorabilia that you own?

I’m looking forward to your answer to this. If you want to start the discussion, scroll to the end or hit “comments”. Otherwise, stay here for all your CM Punk discussion from yesterday.

In the interest of fairness, I excluded MITB and Punk’s pipebomb, as I feel over 50% of the answers would have gravitated to those moments. So for a lot of you, I was asking for your 2^nd or 3^rd favorite CM Punk moment, but that didn’t stop you.

Lenny Vowels: The blowing of the kiss after MITB '11. Just so amazingly characteristic and perfect.

And Lenny manages to find a loophole just 1 comment into the day, by not violating the rules of the question, but definitely sodomizing the spirit.

mattindeed: "MY DIET SODA!!!!!!" Obviously.

TheConvictor: One thing that always bothers me about wrestling is when storylines get dropped, people turn face or heel without any justification, or wrestlers get repackaged and their past accomplishments immediately get treated as if they never happened. In that vein, when Festus became Luke Gallows and joined the Straight Edge Society, I always liked how CM Punk explained that Gallows was still Festus and that his previous zombie-like state was due to alcohol and drug abuse. Sometimes, it's the little things that make me happy.

Garth Holmberg, C.C.: This one might be a little odd, but his pre-match antics at Night of Champions '12, just for the sake of being different and one of the first PPV's I watched since my hiatus from the product. From wearing the Yankee pinstripes on his tights in Cena's "home town" to obnoxiously holding the title belt in the air and refusing to hand it over to the referee for a solid three minutes, it was just doing little things to really dig into your nerves. You can just see it in his face how much fun he has being a prick.

I think it’s rare that any wrestler doesn’t prefer being a heel, but CM Punk has manipulated it better than anyone in the modern era. The art of the “troll” has been lost, and so many heels are generic WWE mutations. Not Punk. The subtlety of the ways he can irritate his foes is never lost, and he does everything he can to get under your skin.

Magoonie NOT Teddy Belmont: I really enjoy the Punk/Joe Trilogy, some fantastic matches with a flowing psychology through each match. Joe vs Punk II is the best match of the three but all of them are great matches. If you are missing CM Punk and haven't watched these matches I implore you to track them down.

I had a pretty frosty relationship with ROH fans in the middle of last decade, who *really* didn’t care to hear anyone give any kind of negative review to the product, ESPECIALLY their golden boy Daniel Bryanson who I saw as blander than white bread (hey, I was wrong). With that said, Punk’s 60 minute draw with Samoa Joe was well done without being the usual masturbatory “let’s wrestle for DAYS” nonsense that Chris Hero was pulling at the time, and showed off some of the finest wrestling available at the time – indy or not. Homicide waiting until they’d finished the Broadway dance to beat the piss out of Joe and spit on him was the cherry on top to the best match Punk and Joe ever had.

PrimeTimeTen: Signing his WWE contract on the Ring of Honor World Championship.

There’s “selling out”, and then there’s selling out and giving the fans an unwanted golden shower on the way out. That whole angle made the later “Summer of Punk” in 2011 look like bizarro world; as he was given a heroes treatment in WWE for doing the exact same thing.

Mike_N: His mega-trolling of Jeff Hardy fans. It was such a dick move to come out dressed as Hardy and playing Hardy's music one night after he'd sent Jeff packing that you just had to sit back and applaud.

This was so magnificently done that most fans assumed that Hardy’s leaving was simply temporary, and part of the bigger angle. Nope; it was Punk just finding more ways to antagonize the fan base.

Petrock: Singing happy birthday to Rey Mysterio's daughter. My roommate's girlfriend walked by when I was watching that and was like "What a dick! Someone needs to kick his ass."

As great as Punk was torturing Aaliyah, it was Aaliyah who was really the star of the segment, putting on as realistic a performance as I’ve ever seen in wrestling.

Extant1979: I always loved how giddy Punk seemed when he was told to take over on commentary when all but Cena, Triple H, Punk and Sheamus (?) walked out. Really, whenever Punk was on commentary was a lot of fun, as he was a great throwback to Jesse Ventura and Bobby Heenan.

It’s obvious how much of a fan of wrestling CM Punk is, which is part of the reason his current walk-out is so heartbreaking. He lived and breathed it. He could just as easily work the booth like an old school commentator, as he could get in the ring and deliver a **** match.

Mike Mears: I'll share my least favorite one, also: The time my girlfriend jumped at me, completely naked, except a CM Punk mask. (She'd ordered the mask to get her order over 25 bucks for the free shipping when she got me the "Respect the Beard" shirt.)

I’m sorry … this is your least favorite story?

Chris B: This ... every time.

Vintage: More of an understated one, but it was the first SD after the Nexus invasion, where Punk was among the first to get beat down. He came on SmackDown a few nights later and talked about being attacked by "36 armed assailants."

Punk has to write his own material, because if there’s anyone that witty working on the writing staff today, they’re being vastly underused.

Michael Weyer: Cashing in MITB for the first time in 2008. Just great as Edge had been beaten down by Batista, crowd was hot but still a huge reaction when Punk comes out, hits a GTS and wins the World title. Brilliant in Edge getting a taste of his own medicine but also great moment for Punk elevated nicely.

This was absolutely beautiful, because as you mentioned, it was the first time anyone other than Edge had used the “Cash On The Champ While He’s Down” routine. To finally have Edge get his comeuppance for his years of scumbagging was quality writing, and it was the right guy at the right time.

greaterpower99: Breaking Point. He's doing a backstage interview and just as he's declared that he's not afraid of the Undertaker, the lights go out. Both Punk and interviewer gasp in fright before the lights come back on, revealing Jimmy Wang Yang laughing at his prank. Punk joins in the laughter for a second, then viciously beats him up and resumes the interview as though nothing had happened, " as I was saying. ....".

jimmybell: That time when Shannon Moore was doing an interview as "The Prince of Punk" in ECW. CM Punk walked into the shot, stared at Moore for a long time, said "You're a poser", then slapped him. Punk waited for Moore to do something, then just chuckled and walked off. One of the best outright burials I've seen.

I’m usually against a full-fledged burial of anyone, but Moore was little more than a jobber at this point, and anything that helped the rocket ascension of Punk is something I’m prepared to overlook.

Knuckleberry Pinn: The match where he finally wins the belt from John Morrisson was awesome, after, surprisingly, their earlier contests were anything but.

Charismatic eNegro Jef Vinson: I love when he screamed, "YOU'RE A WHORE!!" at the stripper.

The best part of this story, is allegedly afterwards he was asked to apologize to the girl by the club owner in the parking lot. Punk walked up to the girl, and told her “nope, you’re still a whore”, and walked away.

Bill Ray: "Click, click, click! That's the sound your knees make! That's also the sound of remote controls when you appear on a TV screen!" -Punk busting on Kevin Nash

Seeing an undersized “Vanilla Midget” take it to Kevin Nash on the microphone was wonderful. I can’t ignore the fact that Punk is an embraced bully; but he’s given a free pass because while poor bystanders like Shannon Moore take his abuse, so do people like Kevin Nash who had never gone without getting in the last word.

Crikey Mate Down Under Aussie: "Your arms are just too short to box with God" He was always a better heel, and he was borderline delusional at his own greatness heading into the match with the Rock, amazing line, amazing delivery.

Great choices all around. Truthfully, this thread could have been 4 times longer, and we still wouldn’t have run out of things to talk about. But I’ll wrap it up here. I’ll be back tomorrow with more. Have a happy Friday, BoD! Play us out, CM Punk.