Minor Four Horsemen member compares Punk to Honkytonk man

[Stopspot]

Punk marks. Read the entire quote before commenting. Because I think this guy has a valid point in a way. At least with Punk's current heel character.

"Glorious" on ClubWWI.com hosted by James Guttman and former Four Horsemen member Paul Roma returned this past week. Here are some highlights from Roma:
CM Punk's look: "He looks like somebody who was dragged out of the tattoo parlor - kicks his feet up and is just chain-smoking cigarettes. Not somebody that you want your son to look like.

"But, at the end of the day, you have to look at him and look at Honky Tonk Man. Honky Tonk was a guy who had no body, but had a great gimmick and people wanted to see him get beat. So when he went out there and beat all these ex-champions and champions-to-be like Tito Santana, people were saying, 'How can that be? How can he beating Tito? How can he be beating this guy? How can he be beating that guy?' And that's what had you coming back. Again, it's like Mike Tyson. You don't have to like him, but you're going to watch to see him get beat. If you do like him, you're gonna watch to see him not get beat.

"And that's the same thing with CM Punk. You said it. He doesn't have a physique. He' s just that less-than-average guy as far as physically looking at him and he goes out there and wins, wins, wins. And it drives the average Joe out in the audience, that looks like him, to say, 'Oh, I can do that, man. CM Punk is doing it and he looks like s--t. I can do it.' The other people out there, who are jacked and in better shape physically, are saying, 'When's this guy gonna get beat?' That's the philosophy that Vince is using with this dude."

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[Swift]

Makes sense

 

[Dolph'sZiggler]

I don't care one way or the other with CM spunk I just hate his terrible fans

 

[Danielson]

He has a point, but vince has seemed to slowly change his philosophy. Although, it looks like he is feeding Ryback more and more.

 

[Lockard 23]

He has a point and I can see the logic, although Punk is certainly more qualified to beat a top star than Honky Tonk Man was. No one would have ever bought HTM beating Hogan or Warrior fairly, whereas Punk can convincingly beat Cena cleanly.

I've always compared JBL's 2004/2005 WWE Title reign to Honky Tonk Man's IC Title reign. The reason being that HTM had a joke character (Elvis impersonator) and so him winning the IC belt and continuously retaining it angered a lot of people because he clearly wasn't on the level of his opponents and yet kept slipping away with the belt time and time again anyway. In a similar way, Bradshaw (who lost his physique back then and had kind of a gut that stuck out) becoming a main eventer and especially a world champion after being only a successful tag teamer his entire career up to that point, took everyone by surprise and everyone hated it and figured he would lose it the next month. And yet he kept retaining it, and that made a lot of people (especially internet fans who hated his reign more than anyone, myself excluded) look forward to his next feud, convinced that the next PPV title defense would finally be the one where Bradshaw would lose it and likely never win it again.

Some people even think they tried the "Warrior beats HTM quickly" act by having Cena beat JBL quickly at WM21, in the quickest match of JBL's long title reign, but that wasn't intentionally the case. The match got cut short because the PPV ran long and whenever that happens, they always cut short the second last match on the card (like Show-Kofi a couple of weeks ago on Raw, possibly) and so their WWE Title match was cut short for time. They both complained about it in interviews.

 

[Rysenberg]

He has a point and I can see the logic, although Punk is certainly more qualified to beat a top star than Honky Tonk Man was. No one would have ever bought HTM beating Hogan or Warrior fairly, whereas Punk can convincingly beat Cena cleanly.

I've always compared JBL's 2004/2005 WWE Title reign to Honky Tonk Man's IC Title reign. The reason being that HTM had a joke character (Elvis impersonator) and so him winning the IC belt and continuously retaining it angered a lot of people because he clearly wasn't on the level of his opponents and yet kept slipping away with the belt time and time again anyway. In a similar way, Bradshaw (who lost his physique back then and had kind of a gut that stuck out) becoming a main eventer and especially a world champion after being only a successful tag teamer his entire career up to that point, took everyone by surprise and everyone hated it and figured he would lose it the next month. And yet he kept retaining it, and that made a lot of people (especially internet fans who hated his reign more than anyone, myself excluded) look forward to his next feud, convinced that the next PPV title defense would finally be the one where Bradshaw would lose it and likely never win it again.

Some people even think they tried the "Warrior beats HTM quickly" act by having Cena beat JBL quickly at WM21, in the quickest match of JBL's long title reign, but that wasn't intentionally the case. The match got cut short because the PPV ran long and whenever that happens, they always cut short the second last match on the card (like Show-Kofi a couple of weeks ago on Raw, possibly) and so their WWE Title match was cut short for time. They both complained about it in interviews.

Great post yet again, agree with all of it.

Slightly of topic here, but The thing that disappointed me most with the Cena/JBL match is that there was absolutely no input from Jordan or the Bashams which we had seen in almost all of his title bouts. It was just John going over JBL which was stupid as it was sort of like 'well, anybody could beat JBL without any outside interference?'. Was a really strange match.

 

[GrammarNazi82]

I don't care one way or the other with CM spunk I just hate his terrible fans

Love you, too. :yay:


Seriously though -- his comments make sense. I don't necessarily know about the comparison with HTM, but I can see where he's coming from and what he means. One of the things I've actually always appreciated about Punk is that he isn't one of the standard buff guys -- that he doesn't fit that mold and isn't as built as the guys Vince usually goes for. I take flack for it, but it's one of the things I actually like about the guy.

 

[Leo C]

Agree with Roma, Punk doesn't have a nice look, and that may effect his heel work positively. Nice point he made.

 

[Dat Kid1]

It's funny because the logic Roma spoke about is the logic I had for Cena. "when's this guy gonna get beat"
Beating guys like Umaga, psh

I guess I see where he's coming from, Punk does not have the look , but he's an ok champ and it put int something different than just cena every other month

 

[catlady]

CM punk surely is a bigger star then HTM was.

 

[Stopspot]

CM punk surely is a bigger star then HTM was.

I believe that you are missing the point he is making. It is not about being the bigger star. It is looking like one. Punk doesn't look like a pro wrestling star, he looks like either a punk rocker or an average Joe. Which both wrestlers utilize as heels.

 

[catlady]

I believe that you are missing the point he is making. It is not about being the bigger star. It is looking like one. Punk doesn't look like a pro wrestling star, he looks like either a punk rocker or an average Joe. Which both wrestlers utilize as heels.

Ohhh! Yes. I see what you mean now. CM Punk def. does not look like a typical wrestler. He looks like he should be working at a tattoo parlor. lol

 

[Stopspot]

Ohhh! Yes. I see what you mean now. CM Punk def. does not look like a typical wrestler. He looks like he should be working at a tattoo parlor. lol

Exactly. And as a heel that is utilized to make the fans want him to lose. Because he doesn't look like a wrestler and thus shouldn't be able to hold the title against guys like Cena and Ryback, and yet he survives week after week. Just like the Honkytonk man did during his multi year IC title run.

 

[catlady]

Exactly. And as a heel that is utilized to make the fans want him to lose. Because he doesn't look like a wrestler and thus shouldn't be able to hold the title against guys like Cena and Ryback, and yet he survives week after week. Just like the Honkytonk man did during his multi year IC title run.

Ok, now I get it. I misunderstood the point of the article. Good call.

I actually enjoy CM Punk more because he isn't a muscle head. He's an average size guy who is in shape, well, not like Ziggler or D-Bry, but you know. They all have achievable body types. I am glad they are giving a shot to normal size athletes now a days.