Former WWE superstar CM Punk got demolished in his long-anticipated UFC debut on Saturday night. He was immediately taken down by Mickey Gall and pummeled on the ground before ultimately submitting to a rear naked choke.
It’s no secret that Punk left WWE on not-so-good terms a couple of years ago before beginning his MMA odyssey. In fact, Punk is embroiled in a lawsuit with a WWE doctor after comments he made on a podcast. Punk also recently alleged that WWE boss Vince McMahon was “bankrolling” the lawsuit against him.
WWE held their Backlash pay-per-view event one night after Punk lost his first UFC fight and a moment in the Intercontinental title match between Dolph Ziggler and The Miz looked very similar to what happened the night before.
First, Punk’s MMA bout. Watch as he charges in towards Gall aggressively and then gets taken down to the mat. The entire fight lasted just over two minutes as Gall hit Punk with a barrage of punches before turning him over and locking in the rear naked choke:
https://twitter.com/karlt187/status/775060988764848129
Second, The Miz charges at Dolph Ziggler only to get taken down in almost identical fashion. Ziggler then unleashes his fists on The Miz before attempting to also lock in a rear naked choke. Of course, it happened in a much quicker timespan than the Punk fight, but the similarities are pretty striking:
https://twitter.com/ryansatin/status/775142536205656064?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
You don’t see too many WWE matches start off with an MMA-style takedown and rear naked choke, especially if it’s not Brock Lesnar in the ring. Was this WWE’s way of mocking Punk’s attempted transition to mixed martial arts? It wouldn’t be the first time a WWE superstar threw shade at Punk since he parted ways with the company.
Punk was very gracious in defeat and sounds like someone who wants to continue to give his fledgling MMA career a try. You can never say never when it comes to professional wrestling, but given Punk’s relationship with WWE and this apparent “tribute” to him the odds are pretty long we’ll ever see him back in a WWE ring again.
H/T Uproxx
