Tear Jerker / CM Punk

• This one sentence after Chris Jericho poured liquor all over him:
  "The one thing that was going through my mind was... I smelled exactly like my father used to."
• The circumstances surrounding his disillusionment from wrestling.
  • It's kind of sad to think about the fact that a guy that was so talented, and put so much of his heart and body into the business, became so burned out that he was quoted as having said that he had no passion left for wrestling, and indeed only found happiness by leaving the industry altogether. He probably had the sort of talent, stability (owing to his relatively cleaner lifestyle) and mental acumen to pour into the business for decades in some form or another, but he wanted nothing more to do with wrestling.
  • The details of the end of his wrestling career in 2013-14 as described by Punk himself in the Amann court case are tough to hear. Punk, whilst WWE was seemingly going out of its way to cut his momentum off at the knees from a booking standpoint, was suffering from a laundry list of physical ailments (which most people knew already) but was mentally shattered to the point where he would break down crying before and between matches. It's not the least bit of a stretch to say that the physical and mental condition described by Punk during this time period fits many of the criteria for clinical depression. In fact, the court transcript describes Punk as visibly choking up even recounting his last year-ish as a pro wrestler on the witness stand. It becomes somewhat easier to understand (if it wasn't already) why Punk literally went "Fuck this" and just walked out of not just WWE, but the entire wrestling industry.
• While Punk's return to wrestling in AEW is more awesome and heartwarming, there was a small linger of sadness when Punk spoke about the circumstances in which he had to leave Ring of Honor. When Punk tries to apologize for leaving the fans while recalling just how bad his life had become while working in WWE (while not naming them directly), he's visibly trying not to break down. It's also one of the rare moments in his instantly-legendary entrance and promo when the crowd goes silent aside of a few people going "Nooo...", as if to say that he doesn't have to apologize for anything and that they understand.
• 2022 had been going Punk's way in AEW, with him defeating MJF in a dog collar match at Revolution, winning the AEW World Championship from "Hangman" Adam Page at Double or Nothing and then being announced he would be defending it against Hiroshi Tanahashi at Forbidden Door. And then on the June 3 edition of Rampage, Punk announced that he was injured and needed surgery, and thus would not be wrestling for some time. During the entire promo, Punk is visibly fighting back tears and the camera shows people in the audience who are openly distraught at the notion that Punk needs to take time off. The only saving grace is that he vowed to make a full recovery and come back better than ever.
  • This line from his announcement: "A couple of things are broken. The biggest one is my heart."
  • Punk even offered to vacate the AEW World Championship (that he had won just days earlier) because he didn't want to deny the opportunity to anyone else in the locker room who had their sights set on it. The only reason he didn't drop the belt is because Tony Khan decided to have an interim champion instead who will face Punk once he's healthy.
• Very shortly after Punk's epic showing at the 2024 Royal Rumble — his first major WWE pay-per-view event in a full decade — the sad news came forth that he suffered a triceps injury during the match that was severe enough to require surgery, forcing him to miss out WrestleMania XL, which he was slated to headline. While this is far from the worst bump in the road for him physically, just the idea of Punk, hot off of making the seemingly impossible return to the company only to be forced to miss its biggest event of the year due to a stroke of bad luck, hit much of the wrestling world hard. While addressing the matter on the following RAW while in a sling:
  "But I'm a Chicago Cubs fan, and this isn’t the first time, and it won't be the last time I say this: there's always next year."
• The fact that he and Colt Cabana may never make amends given how long their friendship was, as an interview with Ariel Helwani revealed that Colt tried to speak with him not too long before the infamous media scrum, only for Punk to tell him he would only speak to him with a lawyer present. Showing that there was no going back to the way things were, not after everything that has happened between them.

---