The Smackers Thread

[TheScarlettChad]

A mate of mine said and I quote "CM Punk Roasted him because he was right, He wouldn't have gotten that Mania main event if he was around."

I mean, Okay? Hindsight and all, But Austin and Punk didn't happen when he WAS there, when he WAS younger. I need new friends.

[LaGoosh]

1 hour ago, Cannibal Man said:

CM Punk is a corpse in a CM Punk mascot costume

He looks more like a Vince McMahon costume these days.

[NeverYield]

A missable show this week for me, Punk and his self importance was cringe, nothing really wrong with KO, saw some critiscisms online that he has slipped a bit on the mic, but I didnt feel that, but it was all a bit of a watered down Punk/Kingston.

Outside of the brawl between Cody and Orton it was a weak show.

[tiger_rick]

I watched the segment when it popped up on YT based on the little bit of buzz from last week. It was as rough as has been discussed. Just unnecessary waffle about stuff no-one cares about, Punk smiling through everything to show how above it all he is, while making terrible comebacks. They go their couple of lines that will make the epic promo so they'll consider it a win.

I did chuckle when KO said "Phil" and the crowd oohed. That's a crowd who own the PWI Almanac!

Amidst all the shooty bollocks, why did KO go out of his way to not mention ROH by name? Surely not fussed 7 people discover Honor Club?

Between this promo and the Interim championship nonsense they've got embroiled in, either TK has finally bought this promotion or their AI Pencil has gone rogue.

[BomberPat]

You just can't do "shoot" promos with CM Punk any more, because you know that anyone actually shooting on him would bring up Saudi Arabia, and everything Punk said about WWE, and how he was a hypocrite on every front, but because that would mean acknowledging Punk's criticisms, and acknowledging that there's something wrong with working in Saudi Arabia, they will never say it. I thought the same thing in AEW, when Punk was feuding with MJF, that they couldn't meaningfully present MJF as this edgy wildcard who says the unsayable because he is never going to say "Colt Cabana".

When someone has made a point of being "real" and "principled" as much as CM Punk has, of wearing their opinions on their sleeve, and lived so much of their life in the public eye, the audience following all of that know where the red lines are, and it's going to get harder and harder to get a, "ooooooh!" shocked reaction by "shooting" on him when it has all been done, and we all know what's not getting talked about. 

The best thing Punk could do is go full corporate heel with a sell-out gimmick, but I doubt we will ever see that happen.

[RedTwoster]

2 hours ago, BomberPat said:

I thought the same thing in AEW, when Punk was feuding with MJF, that they couldn't meaningfully present MJF as this edgy wildcard who says the unsayable because he is never going to say "Colt Cabana".

I think MJF was his greatest opponent ever because they didn’t take the approach of him saying the unsayable - they didn’t have to. They based it around real life, but ultimately did something really interesting that worked in the context of the story without it relying on wrestling being fake to make sense. MJF didn’t need to say ‘Colt Cabana’ because he had a deep-rooted personal grievance that mattered more to him. Genuinely was one of my favourite feuds of the last decade, it’s a shame they’ll likely never wrestle again.

[Supremo]

On 8/9/2026 at 4:50 PM, Supremo said:

Excellent start to the feud, overall. Hopefully a sign of things to come and they’ve finally figured out how to get the most out of Punk. Stop trying to be clever. Stop trying to allude to backstage NEWZ only losers like me even understand. Just pair him with a good performer who can essentially deliver this.

 

Lazy bastards couldn’t last a week without dropping all the restraint originally displayed and going down the same old dog shit route.

If last week was a Diet version of Punk and Eddie Kingston, this was the stale, out of date version of Punk and Eddie Kingston. Completely past its sell by date.

Quite fitting that amongst the terrible endometriosis, “joke,” and all the insider bullshit, Punk was talking about, “wasted potential,” because this pairing is the definition of wasted potential. Two of the best performers in the company, with crazy good chemistry, completely wasted by delivering the same shit, boring material they’ve scripted for Punk ever since he came back.

It’s so fucking boring. The same CM Punk who asked Jack Perry why he insists on doing this, “dumb internet shit,” has done nothing but dumb internet shit for three years straight.

I’m begging them to write a CM Punk feud that goes in any other direction. Write about anything other than what a prick he is backstage, how everyone hates him, and how he walked out a decade ago. Literally anything else. Just look at this prick’s choice of jeans and shoes! You could get a pay per view cycle out of that alone! Horrendous!

[Cousin Jim Bob]

As a 40 year old bloke, both those shoes look terrible, but Punk's look more comfortable.

Who is the heel in this shoe off ?

[NeverYield]

Punk's got a pair of HOKA's on I believe, they make lots of good trainers but those he's got on there are horrendous. I'd rather wear them than KO's Nikes though, equally horrendous. 

[CAREBEAR LUVVA]

Kinell, Punk's got his orthopaedics on there. Perhaps foreshadowing next week's medical "joke".

[Jazzy G]

Comfortable Moccasins? 

[Mr_Danger]

On 8/16/2026 at 3:55 PM, BomberPat said:

 

The best thing Punk could do is go full corporate heel with a sell-out gimmick, but I doubt we will ever see that happen.

I’ve been saying this ever since he entered his Johnny Rotten selling butter phase of Punkdom. 

[Snitsky's back acne]

So it looks like, from the silhouette, that Hiromu Takahashi is going to be unveiled as Shinsuke Nakamura's "Time Bomb".

Hiromu is 5' 7" yet is being talked about by Shinsuke like he is bringing in a monster threat. Plus, it looks like he is going to go into a feud with the two big Tongan fellas.

I'm interested to see Hiromu in WWE but it does seem like this is doomed to fail, doesn't it? 

 

 

[DavidB6937]

1 hour ago, Snitsky's back acne said:

I'm interested to see Hiromu in WWE but it does seem like this is doomed to fail, doesn't it? 

Based on what exactly? There's been a few vague promos from Nakamura. Takahashi hasn't even done anything yet. We've got no idea what they're going to do.

[Snitsky's back acne]

2 hours ago, DavidB6937 said:

Based on what exactly? There's been a few vague promos from Nakamura. Takahashi hasn't even done anything yet. We've got no idea what they're going to do.

We do though, don't we? WWE's history shows us exactly what they are going to do.

Hiromu is talented and charismatic but none of that means anything in WWE. He is small and doesn't speak English.

Admittedly, we are at a time when this has never mattered less in WWE, but you still have HHH, Bruce Prichard and Michael Hayes booking him.

I hope he catches on. I truly do - but WWE's track record with small, talented, male Japanese wrestlers is not great (see: Tozawa, Akira and Michinoku, Taka for just two examples).