I lined up around 1 PM and there were maybe 100 people in line. Punk had pizza delivered for us…awesome from the start. Eclectic mix of fans. Drunk dude in front of us staggering around, kids behind us making posters. Lesnar/Markout Man was there. A fairly jovial atmosphere. My favorite moment was when, waiting outside the theater, a “change the channel” chant broke out towards a guy in a 3rd story apartment watching TV. He then moved the TV towards the window and put on porno. “Yes” chants immediately followed. Gotta love Chicago.
When we got inside I noticed the theater was nowhere near capacity. The building seats around 1400 and there were maybe half that by my estimation. The center rows were reserved for Punk and his friends/family.
Marty Derosa got the show started and introduced Lita, Cliff Compton, and told us Colt refused to come out unless we started a chant for him. We did, and Colt introduced Punk. After a quick word the movie started and we were welcomed with…Triple H in bed. It was his movie Inside Out. Admist “No” chants Punk got on stage and yelled to stop the movie and play the right one.
I won’t go into detail on the documentary, but suffice to say it was awesome. Lots of clips of his IWA and ROH days, and an in depth look at him in WWE up to the pipe bomb promo. The crowd cheered most of the wrestlers when they started talking, but gave a chorus of boos toward Triple H and Cena.
Afterward Punk, in an ode to Andy Kaufman, announced that he bought everyone milk and cookies. Sure enough, in walks Lita with several large boxes of cookies. Dudes were tossing cartons of chocolate milk into the crowd. Fans started to try and crowd the stage to meet Punk but he told everyone to sit back down and we’d all just enjoy the moment. Very cool and very surreal as we all just sat and ate milk and cookies with Punk.
He did a short Q&A answering about two dozen questions. Sad to say most of the questions were kind of lame. Someone asked what he would have said about Vince when his mic was cut off. Punk said there was nothing planned, he told them to cut his mic as soon as he started talking about Vince. Someone asked who he would want to wrestle if he could and the answer was an obvious Steve Austin.
When he finished up with questions he thanked his friends, thanked the fans, and we gave him a standing ovation as he left. All in all, a great movie and a great night for CM Punk.
