>>8903374I was shoot one of those guys. I stopped watching in high school, some time around WrestleMania XIX. I barely kept up with it but around 2009 a more diehard buddy that I was now at the same college with kept going on about Punk. I was full-on UFC in those days so he took that approach. I made fun of Punk for doing the wrist rolls but I remembered him. But of all things, I randomly started giving wrestling a chance again about a year later and I thought Punk was one of the more interesting guys they had. I didn't even know he'd been champion already. I was randomly channel hopping the night of the pipe bomb and watched the last hour of the show. When it happened it was pretty stunning and I was texting that buddy who was losing his mind thinking it was real. He and I watched the PPV together, the first time I'd watched a PPV live since no joke 2001. I was hooked again. I kept up with everything to do with Punk, wondering if he'd do something cool again. Showing up at Comic Con helped. All the while, I'd watch RAW and remember why I stopped. Cena, Miz, R-Truth, etc. everyone else on the show was so impossibly lame I couldn't imagine wanting to watch these people. Then I watched SummerSlam and marked out in earnest for the first time since I was a kid. Punk did it. And then Del Rio pinned him. And I didn't even watch the next RAW. I didn't watch another RAW until about 3 or 4 years later on a whim and it didn't take there either. I've been on this site for a while, but just this board in the last little bit. Funny enough I started following wrestling again because I was interested in AEW, but it's just disappointed me too. I didn't take Punk's loss that hard. It's not like I was hurt by it. I was just reminded very quickly of why I stopped the first time; everything that's organically cool in wrestling dies almost immediately. But I was that guy that this anon is referring to. He's not wrong.
