Timeline: Mistico's Six Year Journey to WWE

Well there seems to be a lot of talk about Lucha Libre these days, I wonder why that could be. I’m not much one for comparing WWE and AEW, but it has been fascinating to watch the two biggest companies compete against each other using entire other companies. Look out TNA! It inspired me to look into a star that AEW has been focusing on lately, who had a pretty noteworthy WWE run. In reading about Mistico, I learned that his journey to WWE was far longer than I knew before, and so this video will cover his six year journey from being at the top of CMLL to just barely making it over the ropes on Raw. We’ll also get a little bit into the mastermind behind Sin Cara’s eventual WWE debut.

In this video, we’ll look at Mistico, his success before WWE, how he came to be signed, and the point at which things started to go wrong, his WWE debut.

Mistico’s success in Mexico.

There are plenty of other channels more equipped to give you a detailed biography of Mistico, but to get us into the timeline, here are some metrics that really show how popular and successful he actually was.

To get a grasp of how successful Mistico was before WWE signed him, let’s start with his championship achievements. He would win his first major title, the NWA World Middleweight championship in 2005, and hold it for nearly five hundred days. He was no stranger to long title reigns, a tag team champion with Negro Casas for four hundred and fifty days, and CMLL Welterweight champion for seven hundred and ten days, thats a little short of two full years. For a little context on how uncommon long title reigns were at this time, while Mistico was CMLL Welterweight champion, the WWE Championship changed hands nine times, between John Cena, Randy Orton, Triple H, Edge and Jeff Hardy. There were also thirteen World Heavyweight championship changes, adding Undertaker, Great Khali, CM Punk, Chris Jericho and Batista to that list, and the most successful of all, Vacant held it a few times in there too. Post his WWE run, he would hold the Historic Middleweight title, which is a sort of follow on from the NWA belt he previously won, which is a whole story in itself, for six full years.

While not the most accurate of measurements, another interesting story can be found in Mistico’s PWI five hundred rankings. In 2004, the year that he was given the name Mistico and began using it in June, he never made it onto the list under that name, or his former name, Astro Boy. In the following year though, he shot up from being unranked to being at number eighteen. This puts him above a large quantity of WWE wrestlers, with only four non WWE or TNA wrestlers above him. In 2006, he would reach number five behind only John Cena, Kurt Angle, Edge and Samoa Joe. In 2007 he would reach his peak success, achieving number three behind Cena and Edge again. Just think about that, of all the wrestlers all over the world, Mistico, who had barely wrestled in American by this point, was ranked number three above almost everybody else. Again, the PWI five hundred isn’t the most scientific of metrics, but it does chart the trajectory of Mistico’s CMLL tenure in an interesting way.

To get a sense of what CMLL’s business was like with Mistico as their star attraction, “At his peak he was so popular he would often work four shows on Sundays and easily 10-12 times per week, and be a license for promoters to print money even though his guarantee, as well as what the CMLL office would take, was unprecedented.” Dave Meltzer even notes that it was rumoured that Mistico’s name and likeness was so valuable, that on the house shows his younger brother would don the mask and costume and portray the character. Two Mistico’s? An insane idea surely.

Mistico was also very successful when it came to awards. In 2006, he won the Observer’s Wrestler of the year award, their top prize for a single wrestler. The award had been won in the previous three years by Kenta Kobashi, and it would be taken by John Cena in the year after, that’s some weird company to be in. Mistico was the first, and to date is the only luchador to win this award, remember that for later. In the same year, he also took the award for ‘Best Box Office Draw’, putting him in the same company as previous winners Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin and The Rock. He is also a two time winner of ‘Best Flying Wrestler,’ previously won by Rey Mysterio six times. He was proclaimed the best box office draw for the entire decade of the 2000’s. Not bad for somebody who through that entire ten years never wrestled in a major US promotion. Not in front of a crowd at least, but that’ll come later.

2005 - Junior Division

While Mistico would sign with WWE in early 2011, this story actually starts back in 2005. According to the October 25th ‘05 Wrestling Observer, WWE contacted AAA and CMLL about potentially using their wrestlers for a new concept they were planning for Smackdown. Specifically the wrestlers they wanted from CMLL were Mistico and Super Porky, for their short lived (no pun intended), Juniors division. While Porky would go to WWE and have a brief run (again no pun intended), Mistico was seemingly blocked from going by CMLL. “The story we heard was CMLL was contacted and didn’t want to send Mistico, who is one of the few guys actually under contract with CMLL.” A couple of weeks later on November 7th, it was reported that “Although the WWE tried to contact him, Mistico himself never got any word from them, so the office or whomever they went to for the connection never passed the message along. He was telling people he wanted to go, but others were explaining to him how they perceived he would be used and talked him out of it.” This was around the same time that the cruiserweight division was still around on Smackdown, but hadn’t really been the same since Rey Mysterio had been removed from it. Five months later, Rey would win the World title at Wrestlemania twenty-two, and wouldn’t look back. A few months earlier in June, the Mexicools had debuted, and were immediately pushed as a joke act, riding lawn mowers to the ring and donning overalls. As we’ll hear more about in a little while, a lot of Mexican talent were seeing this, and not wanting to become the next version of the Mexicools. Years later Dave would explain, “Because of how people like Psicosis and Super Crazy were treated, there has been a stigma among the wrestlers in Mexico that if you go to WWE, you’ll just be topped out unless you’re Mysterio so people who were stars in Mexico didn’t want to risk it.” Rey Mysterio was very much seen as the exception, not the rule.

The Junior division in reality had been the brainchild of at the time writer for WWE Court Bauer, who now owns Major League Wrestling, one of the promotions that Mistico currently works for today. In 2011 when Mistico finally signed with the company, the Observer details Court’s original plan to build a new division around him as the centerpiece. The inspiration behind it was the way Jushin Liger and Tiger Mask had been featured as junior heavyweights in the 90’s. “His feeling was they had already tainted the cruiserweight division and putting him in that division would be the kiss of death to him both in booking and with the fan base.” In Dave’s words, the plan having been pitched to an approving McMahon, was “was obscenely sabotaged”. Somewhere along the way the word ‘Junior’ appears to have gotten lost in translation, and it was likely for the best that Mistico was never involved. The division became a joke storyline that seemed doomed to failure almost by design. On screen it was pitched by Palmer Canon, the in-storyline Network executive whose character was supposed to know nothing about what worked in wrestling. As noted in the Observer on November 14th, Mistico’s US debut would end up taking place on October 26th 2005, in front of a sold out fifthteen hundred fans for Lucha Va Voom in Los Angeles, and the now entirely comedic Junior division would last only a few weeks.

2007 - A more serious attempt

The next time WWE would have interest in Mistico would be in 2007, this time a bit more seriously. In the March 5th ‘07 edition of Figure Four Weekly, Bryan Alvarez reports on Mistico being set to take part in a WWE tryout that week in San Jose. This would have been at the Smackdown and ECW taping that took place on February 27th at the HP Pavillion. Bryan Alvarez claims that WWE became interested in Mistico through him winning the Observer’s Wrestler of the year award in 2006. “Basically, people cannot believe that the wrestler of the year is this man Mistico, and they’re bringing him in to see what he’s got.” Bryan also comments on speculation that the tryout is taking place in San Jose as some sort of dig at Dave Meltzer who lives there. “Now before the conspiracy theories begin that the idea is to make him look like a fool on a WWE show in front of Dave Meltzer, I can tell you that the idea of having the tryout in San Jose was made on the Mexican side and not the WWE side.” Alvarez goes on to make a rather insane claim about just how much CMLL didn’t want to lose Mistico. “in fact, the CMLL office alerted border patrol over the weekend to watch out for him and not let him into the country, which is way up there on the insanity scale.” While I wasn’t sure if this was a real claim or not, it is reiterated in later newsletters, so maybe there was something to it. Not truth maybe, but something to it.

In the following week’s issue, more details would come out about Mistico’s audition for the company. “Mistico’s tryout Tuesday night was a one-on-one match before the agents with Dean Malenko. The word out of WWE was that he got a very good report, but that if he signed he probably would not debut immediately on TV, meaning a likely trip to developmental.” Bryan also notes that he returned to Mexico afterwards. He would compete in CMLL the day before his tryout and would be back working for them a few days later, and was advertised for matches for CMLL as far out as April. The March 12th Observer also notes that Mistiso did not have a US work visa at the time, and so wrestled the match, and another with Jamie Noble in front of the Smackdown roster but no fans, essentially like an audition. Dave also notes that his English apparently wasn’t great, and so time in developmental might have also been planned to help with that.

The final interesting thing of note in this Observer is one last trick CMLL may have played to get him to stay. “The plan in Mexico is to basically force him to make his choice immediately. They have planned a PPV match on 3/16 with Mistico vs. Perro Aguayo Jr. mask vs. hair, which would be CMLL’s biggest match in years. If he stays, he will win the match. If he leaves, they are going to want to unmask him, which becomes a huge risk to him because he likely won’t be anywhere near the draw or money earner without the almost next generation Santo thing they’ve pushed him as if he drops the match.” In what might be considered a spoiler, this mask versus hair bout would end up not taking place.

In the March 14th Observer, it would be reported that Mistico would not be leaving for WWE. “The Mistico soap opera of the past few weeks is over and he’s not coming. Mistico admitted to the company that had signed a five year contract with CMLL that had several years remaining. WWE lawyers decided the only way they could sign Mistico was if they worked the deal out through CMLL, who is not interested in giving him up.” Dave added that WWE wasn’t happy with this having been impressed by Mistico, but also because “Mistico never let them know he had a valid contract until Laurinatis made him the offer at the end of this past week.” Upon his eventual signing, Mistico would lament that he wished he had gone in 2007, but things would change later on in WWE that would improve his chances of success.

2011 - Misico finally signs

It wouldn’t be until January of 2011 that conversations between Mistico and WWE would resume. In the January 3rd Observer it would be reported that “Mistico has made inquiries about coming in.” On why he hadn't gone sooner, rather than the contractual and visa issues reported years earlier, Dave notes “When Mistico was super hot in Mexico, they were in talks with him and he did a tryout match behind the scenes one day in San Jose and everyone was impressed with his chain wrestling. But he was making so much money in Mexico that it made no sense to leave.” As far as him making enough money where he was, something similar has been said many times by Konnan, on why he ended up not portraying Max Moon in the early 90’s. Konnan was making so much money, even starring in a Soap Opera at the time, that he ended up deciding that he didn’t need to cart the Max Moon costume back and forth between Mexico and the US. While this may have also been a reason for Mistico not to go, his CMLL contract was also a barrier for him leaving.

As I noted earlier, Mexican talent had previously been cautious of WWE following the treatment of the Mexicool and other hispanic talent, but by 2011 the tide had changed a bit, largely due to the push of Alberto Del Rio. In the same month as Mistico was looking to come in, Alberto was set to win the Royal Rumble match, that weird forty man one that makes Del Rio’s win a bit of a trivia note. When Mistico did eventually sign, the success of Alberto was reported in the newsletters as being a significant reason for Mistico deciding that the time was now. Another reason why Mistico’s chances may have been higher now than before involve WWE’s most famous luchador, Rey Mysterio. “Upsides include continuing issues between Rey Mysterio and WWE and the likelihood of WWE needing a successor for him; the success of WWE among the hispanic demographic and the desire to hire more Mexicans; his marketability in Mexico, even with a new name; the fact that he knows how to carry himself as a superstar since he’s been one pretty much since his debut as the character in the mid-00s; and the fact that they likely paid him good money, which encourages them to make the most of their investment.” The issues Bryan is referencing are the injuries Rey seemed to be plagued by. “The company’s key Spanish babyface, Rey Mysterio, is 36, and has been wrestling with a plethora of injuries for years, is on a lighter schedule, and the company feels they have to plan for the future.” Little did they know back in 2011 that Rey would find the fountain of youth and still be going in 2025…

As far as talks between the two sides, nothing was reported for the rest of January, and Mistico would remain active in CMLL, and also New Japan. His final match outside WWE would take place on January 23rd for the joint New Japan and CMLL event known as Fantastica Mania, where he would defeat Averno, one of his regular opponents. The next time Mistico would compete on that event would be 2019, post his WWE run. Publicly there appeared to be no sign yet that he was leaving, as the night before he had competed in the main event, teaming with Prince Devitt, the future Finn Balor and Hiroshi Tanahashi, in a match that was described in the Observer as “focused on letting him shine and he was in a match filled with good workers.”

In the February 1st Figure Four, Mistico signing with WWE would be one of the top stories of the week. Alvarez notes early on that this signing wasn’t going to be straight forward though, describing him as “a younger, flashier version of Rey Mysterio, though he cannot speak good English and can’t work the traditional American style that Mysterio worked for years before coming to WWE.” This was another argument for Mistico having a stint in developmental territory FCW, which at the time had a fair few future stars on it’s roster. From Seth Rollins, to Xavier Woods, Big E and AJ Lee. Bryan Danielson had also been in FCW not long before that, but was soon set to debut on the first season of NXT.

A week later we would get some more information in the February 7th Observer about how Mistico had been trying to leave CMLL for quite a while. “He had been unhappy for the past several months, and had been in secret talks on separate occasions, once with AAA believing they had a good shot at getting him in for a major show.” Dave also notes the he was going to have to have a new name, and likely a new mask design is he was to stay masked, as the Mistico name and likeness was owned by CMLL. It also seems that CMLL were more willing to let Mistico go in 2011 too. “The company had made the decision to really push the younger La Sombra and Mascara Dorada, as the company’s long-term battle plan has been, actually based on the success of Mistico’s explosion at a time when business wasn’t strong.” I felt a bit old reading that and knowing that since that was written Mascara Dorada’s time in WWE as Gran Metalik has been and gone, and La Sombra, now known as WWE’s Andrade is on his second run.

The next major development with Mistico would be reported in late February, when the plans for him had been changed. Mistico was now no longer scheduled to go to Florida Championship Wrestling, their developmental group at the time, but instead he would head straight to the main roster. “The idea is that since it cost so much to get him, they need to make him a valuable player as soon as possible. Whether this is short-sighted thinking or not will be better viewed in hindsight.” Remember that mastermind I teased what feels like an age ago? He might turn out to be responsible for the main roster call as well. It was also noted here for the first time that Jim Ross was scheduled to be at a press event that was open to all on February 24th, which would become the press conference where Mistico was introduced under his new name. Dave astutely guesses that the purpose of the event would be “to also make sure the Mexican-Americans and Mexican fans know it is the former Mistico under the mask.” Introducing him as the former Mistico, and revealing his new identity here actually turned out to be a clever way of accomplishing this, and one that would be nicked in NXT over the years since.

The Introduction

On February 24th 2011, WWE would introduce Mistico to the world, unveiling his new name. He would now be known as Sin Cara, which translates as ‘no face’. The press conference did a pretty effective job of making sure that WWE fans knew that Sin Cara was a big deal, and we should anticipate his debut. Earlier in the day, CMLL held their own press event, at which they were expected to attempt to bury Mistico ahead of WWE’s event. This did not happen in the end, with CMLL just using their time to announce many of the big matches they had upcoming. “Most of the interest was on how CMLL would handle losing the company’s biggest star. Most saw the attempt as damage control. Director/booker Juan Manuel Mar (also known as Panico, his wrestling name) said that the wrestler formerly known as Mistico had left the promotion. He said that the company still owned the name and the likeness, and that they would eventually introduce a new Mistico.” Following the press event, Sin Cara would be whisked off to Los Angeles to film promo footage for his imminent debut. On the March 7th episode of Raw, we would get our first glimpse of this footage on WWE television, featuring Sin Cara performing moves with Alex Kozlov that they shot in a warehouse. Though never having wrestled for WWE as a contracted performer, Kozlov was chosen as he had experience working with luchadors.

On March 21st, it was reported that Sin Cara was scheduled to be put the Raw brand, and so was likely to debut there. As far off as May he was being advertised for matches teaming with Evan Bourne against the Nexus, in matches that would never actually take place, so getting off to a great start then. On March 25th through the 27th, Sin Cara would have his first house show matches for WWE, wrestling Primo Colon on all three dates in Champaign Illinois, Evansville and Indianapolis Indiana. According to Figure Four weekly, “The idea, obviously, was to use a guy who could do some lucha spots with him, speak his language and try to teach him the WWE style.” When the time would come, Sin Cara’s first TV match would also be with Primo, in hopes of getting him off on the right foot. Pun intended for what is coming soon.

The Debut

On April 4th 2011, one night after Wrestlemania twenty seven, the famously well received wrestlemania twenty seven by the way, Sin Cara would make his WWE Raw debut. Following a match or the United States title between Daniel Bryan and Sheamus, the one that had been bumped from Wrestlemania the night before, Sin Cara would come to the aid of Bryan, vaulting into the ring with the use of a small trampoline that I assume the Spirit Squad left behind. For reference later as I’m going to be quoting Bryan Alvarez again soon, he would commonly refer to this in Figure Four Weekly as the “little tramp”, usually complaining that it had to go. Once Sin Cara got in the ring he looked impressive against Sheamus, but all anyone cared to remember the next day was him just barely making it into the ring on the little tramp.

On April 11th, Sin Cara would have his in ring debut, winning a short match with Primo. It didn’t help at all that there was a major botch at the finish of the match, where Sin Cara fell off the top rope, and retried the move he was going for. A reputation, perhaps unfairly gained, was beginning to form. If you’re wondering by the way, that phallic t-shirt wouldn;t come out until November, so it can’t be blamed yet.

I’m going to end this story with a report from the April 24th 2011 Wrestling Observer, as it reveals the mastermind of all of this that I mentioned at the start of this video. The man who had been pulling the strings behind Mistico’s transformation into No Face. This is of course a massive exaggeration, but let me explain a bit. During this week, WWE officially announced that Triple H was set to take on WWE’s developmental program, which according to the report was “something that has been in the works for months.” The newsletter explains “They pushed the idea (that) the signing of Sin Cara was his first move, which is why Sin Cara was rushed onto the main roster and given the push coming in.”

A day after this was published, Sin Cara would be drafted to Smackdown while Rey Mysterio, the man he was supposed to be the successor to was moved to Raw. It was thought that for various botch related reasons, he might do better on the still at the time pre-taped show. “He can still be a top star, but he’ll be a top star where they can edit out botched spots or screw-ups on the mini tramp.” In Figure Four weekly Bryan Alvarez made another very interesting point about why Sin Cara may have been moved, relating to Smackdowns strong hispanic audience. “Should also be noted that when Rey was getting pushed the Hispanic demographics for Smackdown were excellent, and with Cara being Hunter’s hand-picked first real-life draft pick, he’ll probably get a push and they’re likely hoping for similar ratings results, particularly in Mexico.”

It’s safe to say then, that based on Sin Cara’s early performances, and the limp crowd reactions to him, that Triple H wasn’t given much of a chance as head of development by the fans. Not initially at least, proving that we fans don’t know it all. SIn Cara had hoped that in 2011 the time might have been right for him to have a fair shot in WWE, but who knows what might have happened if he’d held out for a few years and joined NXT, or maybe a few years later and been a part of the Cruiserweight Classic? He might have even gotten a photo of Triple H pointing at him. He’s still wrestling today, and is back to using the Mistico name. It was considered a big deal when he made his debut in All Elite Wrestling in 2023, as it ushered in the start of AEW’s relationship with CMLL, maybe even leading to AAA’s acquisition this year.

Sources:

WON Oct 24th 2005 Juniors Division: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/october-24-2005-observer-newsletter-wwe-changes-course-jim-ross-angle/

WON Nov 7th 2005 Mistico wanted to go https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/november-7-2005-observer-newsletter-wwe-turmoil-jim-ross-storyline/

Cagematch.de SD/ECW taping in San Jose Feb 27th 2007 https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=10322

FFD Mar 5th 2007 - Mistico tryout match https://members.f4wonline.com/newsletters/figure-four-weekly/f4w610-pride-delivers-five-star-show-march-5-2007-89511/

FFD Mar 12th 2007 Tryout follow up https://members.f4wonline.com/newsletters/figure-four-weekly/f4w611-couture-slays-giant-march-12-2007-89516/

WON Mar 14th 2007 - Mistico can’t go https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/march-14-2007-observer-newsletter-ufc-68-recap-bad-news-allen-passes-away/

WON Jan 3rd 2011 - Mistico makes inquiries: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/jan-3-2011-observer-newsletter-jeff-hardy-situation-enormous-king/

FFD Jan 4th 2011 - Heel run https://members.f4wonline.com/newsletters/figure-four-weekly/jan-4-2011-figure-four-weekly-best-year-lucha-libre-dynamite-and-ufc-news-more/

WON Jan 31st 2011 - Fantastica Mania https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/2011-wrestling-observer-newsletter-awards-issue-92196/

FFD Feb 1st 2011 Mistico signs https://members.f4wonline.com/newsletters/figure-four-weekly/feb-1-figure-four-weekly-road-mania-and-line-rumble-report-dgusa-ippv-strikeforce/

WON Feb 7th 11 Mistico signing more info https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/feb-7-2011-observer-newsletter-royal-rumble-2011-road-mania-mistico/

WON Feb 28th 11 Early info on press conference https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/feb-28-2011-observer-newsletter-elimination-chamber-mania-build-fedor/

WON March 7th Post press conference https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/march-7-2011-observer-newsletter-wwe-biz-picking-sin-cara-ufc-127-roh/

WON Mar 21st 11 Raw brand advertising https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/march-21-2011-observer-newsletter-ufc-buys-strikeforce-victory-road/

FFD Mar 29 11 House show debut https://members.f4wonline.com/newsletters/figure-four-weekly/mar-29-figure-four-weekly-wrestlemania-27-preview-issue-fight-night-detail-tons/

WON Apr 11 11 Sin Cara Debut https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/april-11-2011-observer-wrestlemania-27-double-issue-plus-worldwide/

FFD Apr 12 11 In ring debut, trampoline and botch https://members.f4wonline.com/newsletters/figure-four-weekly/apr-12-figure-four-weekly-official-list-banned-wwe-terms-sweeney-edge-notes-more/?

WON Apr 13 11 more on debut https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/april-13-2011-observer-newsletter-edge-retires-death-larry-sweeney/



WON Apr 24 11 Triple H secret plans revealed https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/april-24-2011-observer-newsletter-lockdown-report-vinces-huge-gamble/

The Extreme Feud of New Jack & Vic Grimes - From ECW to XPW

On February 23rd 2002, one of the most infamous moments in wrestling took place. All I have to tell you is that it involves Vic Grimes and New Jack and I’m sure you’ll know what I’m talking about. Two would meet in a Scaffold match, where the loser would fall from an ungodly height, that was advertised as being twice what Mick Foley fell at King of the Ring 1998. The cushion? A pitiful looking twelve tables covering the center of the ring, but it ended up not working out that way.


In this video, we’ll look at the feud in ECW that led to the match in XPW. We’ll hear from both Grimes and New Jack, and we'll look at the newsletters to see what was being reported at the time.


I know what you might be thinking, this story has been covered many times, not just here on YouTube, but even by TV docs. In this Timeline series though, I like to focus on what was being reported as the feud was happening. because sometimes you find parts of the story that might otherwise have been lost.


Before I get to XPW Freefall, let's take a bit of a look at the history between New Jack and Vic Grimes, as that plays a big part in what happened later. By the time Grimes started wrestling around 1995 in California, New Jack was just arriving in ECW. New Jack had become one of the most popular acts in the company by the time Vic got there in late 1999. Through the year so far, New Jack had been feuding with the Dudley Boyz, who had recently left for WWE, and his former tag team partner Mustafa, who had also left the company. New Jack was therefore in need of new opponents, and so would be assigned The Baldies.


The group weren’t the most complex of characters, if you were bald and could pull off looking like a thug, you were in. Early on the group had some interchangeable members who you might know from elsewhere, such as former WCW star PN News, Redd Dogg who would later have a run in WWE as Rodney Mack, and Vito LaGrasso, formerly ECW lower carder Skull Von Krush and the future Big Vito in WCW. The three main members that ECW eventually settled on were Angel or Spanish Angel as he had been known, Tony DeVito and arriving last, Vic Grimes.


Grimes had been signed to a WWE developmental deal earlier in ‘99, working mostly for Power Pro Wrestling in Memphis, where officials were keeping tabs on him. He was wrestling alongside other developmental wrestlers like Kurt Angle at the time, who was thought to be head and shoulders above all the others, and was soon to make his WWE debut. Vic however, wasn’t very popular with management. According to the Wrestling Observer in September ‘99, their main concerns with him were his in ring ability and his weight.


Vic would make several appearances on WWE television, wrestling only one match on the August 8th ‘99 episode of Shotgun Saturday Night. He would be given awful looking white gear to wear, have long white hair, and be given the name ‘Key’. He was intended to be a drug dealer character, the weirdest looking drug dealer ever. Key was put in a trio with Prince Albert and Droz, running away with the award for wrestling stable you’d least like to meet in an alley. On Heat, he Droz and Albert would defeat three enhancement talents. A promising start that turned into a dead end.


Later that month, it would be reported in the Wrestling Observer that WWE officials weren’t happy with Vic’s match. “He (Vic) told friends that he couldn’t punch good in the suit they had him wearing and he slipped off the ropes wearing street shoes instead of wrestling boots. Anyway, he wasn’t at the tapings at all this week and the character may have been dropped for now” In the next week’s issue, Dave notes “There is talk of WWF trying to get ECW to use Vic Grimes to give him more experience since he isn’t ready yet.”


WWE sending people to ECW had become an established practice over the past couple of years. They had previously sent Al Snow for an extreme excursion, and he came back with an entirely new gimmick, and a plastic head, both of which were proven to be popular with the fans before he ever stepped back into a WWE ring. Maybe then something like this could happen for Grimes? A couple of weeks later, Paul Heyman was reported to not be averse to taking in WWE talent, given how well the Al Snow run had gone. “He said he felt the Al Snow deal benefited everyone, as he got a good wrestler for several months for very little money (since WWF was paying the guy), that Snow got a gimmick that got him back into WWF and WWF got to use the gimmick ECW created for him.” Vic seems to think differently though, saying in a 2021 interview with the Xtreme Memories podcast, that WWE sent him there knowing full well that they weren’t going to call him back up. While we can't say that this reasoning is true, it is exactly what happened.


ECW


On November 13th 99’ Grimes would arrive in ECW, and straight away be put with the Baldies. Perhaps his most notable match early on came on an episode of ECW on TNN, where he would unsuccessfully challenge Mike Awesome for the ECW world title. The match is notable for a terrifying looking awesome bomb off the apron through a table, an incredible move to even try on a man the size of Grimes. Though Vic had been wrestling for ECW for about a month, this would be his first appearance on their television. In an Observer from around the time of this match, Dave wrote that Heyman had grown to really like having Vic around, because he liked Grimes’ attitude, and that he would work on the ring crew while also wrestling on the shows. It’s also noted that Vic at this time was still on a WWE developmental deal.


Vic and New Jack first appeared in the same segment on the December 17th episode of ECW on TNN, the same show where he faced Mike Awesome. Their only real interaction would come as part of a three on one attack, so would be fairly limited. Grimes and New Jack specifically would meet in a few matches on house shows in 99, but their feud would eventually make it to TV in the new year.


On January 9th 2000 at Guilty as Charged, New Jack would face Angel in a King of the Streets match, where the winner would unofficially win the right to that title. The match is essentially a three-on-one handicap brawl, as New Jack holds his own with various weaponry until the numbers are eventually too much for him. Joey Styles on commentary even made the claim that it was the Baldies’ plan to get beaten up by new Jack, distracting him away from fighting Angel. One moment of note occurs when New Jack takes Vic into the crowd, and places him on a table underneath the balcony where the hard camera is positioned. Jack proceeds to leap from this balcony, with Grimes and the table breaking his fall. Once New Jack is back in the ring, a distraction from DeVito allows Angel to merc Jack with a shovel, and actually defeat him by pin fall, which had to be considered surprising at the time. The reviews for this match were what you might expect for essentially a weapons mess, with Wade Keller in the PW Torch calling it a “typically intense, watchable garbage match”.


On the January 15th episode of Hardcore TV, which confusingly was actually taped 2 days before the pay-per-view at the famous Centre Stage theatre in Atlanta, New Jack and Vic Grimes would have their only televised one-on-one match. At one point Grimes produced a pizza cutter which he often carried to the ring, but would show that in character, he isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer, by proceeding to jab the handle of the cutter into New Jack’s head and not the sharp blade on the other end. That said, if I were in there with New Jack I wouldn’t want to blade him either. Towards the end, Grimes performs a somersault from the top rope to the floor, missing New Jack, crashing through a table. Foreshadowing is a literary device where- New Jack then gets him back in the ring and finishes the match for the win. From here, having done the three on one match a few times, New Jack would find himself tag team partners to fight the Baldies. Both Tommy Dreamer and Balls Mahoney would team with New Jack, both defeating combinations of the group.


*We’re about to get to the first major part of this story, which took place at Living Dangerously 2000, but I thought it felt necessary to tell you about the lead up to this event, because it seemed that Vic and New Jack had worked well enough together in the past, until that night in Danbury Connecticut.* At the Living Dangerously pay per view on March 12th 2000, the night was mostly built around two things, a tournament to crown a new television champion following the heartbreaking end of Rob Van Dam’s epic twenty three month long reign due to in injury, and the long built up match between Steve Corino and Dusty Rhodes, which was a big step towards Corino becoming a more serious heel in the company. Near the end of the night though, a Danbury street fight would take place between two of ECW’s most vicious brawlers. At least that's what Joey Styles calls it, but there is at no point a referee, so this may never have been an official match.


The whole thing starts in chaos, as the Baldies run out and attack Balls Mahoney, who had teamed with New Jack recently. Grimes dives off the top rope, crashing through Balls and a table on the outside before New Jack’s music even plays. While Grimes recovers, New Jack makes short work of Angel and DeVito, talking them down with a guitar, and whatever you want to call this move. Grimes attacks from behind with his Pizza cutter, and it doesn’t take long for the two to ominously head into the crowd. As New Jack persues Grimes, we see glimpses of the scaffolding that they are heading towards in the corner of the building. As they reach the scaffolding it gets hard to see what's actually going on, but Grimes lays New Jack on a table, then places another table on top of him. Vic heads up the scaffolding, but he freezes when he sees that New Jack is up. It takes a while for both to get their footing, and you can see the scaffolding shaking under the weight of both of them, and then Jack pulls, and they both begin to fall. They go off the scaffold in perhaps the least safe way possible, with New Jack falling feet first, and Grimes going with a somersault. After going through table one, New Jack topples sideways while Grimes continues falling, and lands on him. While ECW shows lots of replays and crowd shots, including Grimes being helped away, we don't see New Jack again, telling us that something was wrong right away.


Dave Meltzer would begin his review of Living Dangerously by saying that it would be “remembered for one brief glimpse.” According to him, “The idea apparently was for Jack to suplex Grimes off the scaffold, through a table.” I have no idea how this could have happened though with the metal frame so shaky underneath them. “The scaffold didn’t have a large stable floor base. It had a plank like bottom that one could walk on, but hardly do anything athletic on. The side of the plank was several feet from the edge, which had a metal base on nothing else, where Grimes would take the bump from.” It is also suggested here that the two never actually checked the scaffolding. “The feeling was that the two came up with the spot without even scouting out the scaffold to realize what they planned would be impossible to pull off.” Not to throw a spanner in the works, but one person’s account of how it happened contradicts some of what was in the Observer. I'm talking about Angel, who in a 2022 interview with Hannibal TV, and said that the original plan was for him to take the suplex off the scaffolding. *CLIP*


Dave also makes note that the fans, not shocked or stunned, were in his word “euphoric” in their reaction, not possibly aware of the seriousness of what had happened. ECW staff however were not. “In the dressing room, there was a legitimate brief scare that he was dead, enough to send the show into a panic and rush everything to end it as soon as possible without doing two minute matches and making it too obvious. The fact we at home were seeing everything but what was actually happening was a testament to the fact people calling the shots were scared out of their minds.“ The two matches set to follow, a three way for the tag team titles and the finals of the TV title tournament were both under ten minutes. Dave doesn’t question if the show should have been stopped, but draws some similar comparisons to what had happened at the Kemper arena in Kansas City a year earlier.


I quoted Vic Grimes earlier, and now let’s hear New Jack’s telling of the story. In his 2009 YouShoot interview for Kayfabe Commentaries, New Jack claims that Vic told him that he had checked the scaffolding earlier in the day, but he actually hadn’t. He notes that the two of them come close to six hundred pounds, and that the scaffolding was creaking under the weight of them. He also blames Vic for there being two tables to break their fall, as in his words, “because we set two tables up, when I hit the first table it allowed him to catch up with me, cos it broke my fall.” The angle that new Jack fell also doesn’t help, as he tumbled into the direction that Vic was falling. New Jack claims that he had seizures for the next month, as well as sight loss in his right eye for around five months.


In the Observer, Dave noted that New Jack walked away that night with “a mild concussion, an external bruise of the chest and shoulders, a bruised sternum, a cracked elbow (somewhat re-aggravating a previous injury) that won’t require surgery and was able to fly home to Atlanta the next evening. He was actually able to walk around, although very sore, and talked of performing as early as this coming weekend.” Thankfully, he did not perform on the following week’s shows, with his next match being nearly a month later.


On the April 16th episode of Hardcore TV, New Jack’s return would air, a tag match teaming with Tommy Dreamer against Angel and DeVito. The segment starts with all three Baldies attacking Dreamer a bit like at Living Dangerously, until New Jack’s music hits. Grimes can be seen standing in the ring, but after Jack enters he isn’t seen again, with Joey Styles telling us he ran away, wanting no part of New Jack. Angel says in his interview that this was a Paul Heyman call, and at first Grimes was supposed to take a guitar shot from New Jack, but word got out that New Jack was planning some revenge. *CLIP* The next time New Jack and the Baldies meet would be on the May 13th Hardcore TV, a day before the next pay per view. Angel and DeVito attack him with no sign of Vic Grimes.


At Hardcore Heaven on May 14th from Milwaukee Wisconsin, the long running feud between New Jack and the Baldies would finally end. Following a three way tag team match there Chris Chetti and Nova would defeat Angel and DeVito as well as Danny Doring and Roadkill, New Jack would come back for his King of the Streets title. In a brisk match which included a balcony dive, Jack would defeat Angel, tying up that loose end. Rather cleverly, in the tag match prior, Roadkill had splashed Grimes through a table, meaning that Vic would have no later involvement, selling for the table move, and keeping he and New Jack separate. By the end of May, Vic would be gone from ECW, only having one more match on TV after the pay per view.


In the June 12th Observer, it was noted that “WWF has yet to make a decision on whether or not to renew Vic Grimes’ developmental deal”, implying that it was coming up soon. A month later a follow up was published. “Vic Grimes’ WWF contract wasn’t renewed. The feeling seems to be that he didn’t improve on his in-ring work and conditioning over the year he was under contract. He is technically still with ECW, but hasn’t been used because he moved back to Northern California and with money being tight, they aren’t going to fly him in.” Grimes said in his podcast interview that ECW told him that they wanted to keep using him, but they never flew him out from California. He does note that he was backstage at Heat Wave 2000, ECW’s one and only event in Vic’s home state, but he wasn’t used, a clear sign that he was done.


On Vic’s exit from ECW he says in the podcast I referenced earlier, “New Jack didn’t like me, and politics again, boom.” He says that once he left ECW he thought his career might be done, until he checked out an XPW show near where he lived, as he had some friends that worked there. Grimes would begin wrestling for XPW in early 2001, getting some early success by winning the 01 King of the Death matches tournament. Later in the year, he would lose an exploding ring match to crown the first King of the Death match champion.


New Jack claims on YouShoot that he never hated Vic, not at the time at least. He then says that the problem between them grew when he heard of Grimes quote “taking credit” for hurting him. “That’s when I decided that I wanted to go to XPW where he was at.” Angel makes a statement that corroborates this, and maybe explains a bit. One show after Vic started with XPW, New Jack would follow. Less than a month after that, the two would be on opposite sides of a tag team match, but they wouldn’t meet again in a singles match until a year later, setting up the scaffold match.


XPW


On January 12th 2002 at XPW’s New Year’s Revolution, New Jack and Grimes had a match with no clear winner. The two men would brawl to the backstage area, and the lights in the building would go out. When they came on a few minutes later, the referee was left pacing, having no idea what was going on, until Vic and New Jack would appear on a balcony in the Grand Olympic Auditorium. The two teased throwing each other off the balcony, but eventually New Jack would take a horrific looking fall, chasing into, but not necessarily through two tables. The match would be officially ruled a no contest, as Grimes celebrated from above.


This would lead to a rematch in the following month where they could only be a decisive winner, as the loser would have to come off the scaffolding. In the build up to Freefall, New Jack had been telling people that he was due to hang up his boots. “The match was also billed as loser having to retire, and New Jack went around telling people he was going to retire (although he was still taking bookings for whomever asked) because of doctors orders to get it over that he would be losing and it would actually be a stip adhered to, but nobody was taking it seriously.” Bryan Alzarez gave more detail in his Figure Four Weekly, saying “New Jack is now claiming that his doctor told him if he gets hit on the head one more time, he could lose what’s left of his eyesight and be paralyzed.” If you're wondering, both New Jack and Vic Grimes would be back in the ring about two months after the scaffold match.


And now, we get to the day of XPW Freefall. According to an account published in the Wrestling Observer, “When Grimes first arrived at the building, the scaffold was already set up. Grimes climbed to the scaffold, looked down, and recognized he was in trouble because the ring was out of position. He moved the ring five feet by going into the ring and running the ropes and moving it that way.” That in itself is a stunning statement, and the part about the ring being moved is confirmed by New Jack on YouShoot. Dave adds “He actually should have moved it three or four more feet, because hitting the ropes shows just how little the margin of error was.”


Earlier in the night, the Sandman had won the XPW King of the Death match Championship from Supreme. The report in the Observer says that “There were also a lot of fans upset by a Sandman heel turn that didn’t get over the way it was supposed to.” This wouldn't be the only thing they would be upset by though, as also on the card, promoter Rob Black’s wife Lizzy Borden would take part in a Lumberjack Buck Naked match with Veronica Caine, where the loser would be stripped completely. “Well, just at the moment that was supposed to happen, the lights went out, and they rushed Caine backstage. The fans were so upset there was fear of a riot for not following through on that stip.” On a night where things were already going wrong for XPW, New Jack and Grimes were scheduled to take part in the main event. “The match didn’t start until after 12:40 a.m. because the show went forever.”


New Jack takes to the ring and tells the crowd that he wanted this match. There’s a very ominous feeling even when you know what’s coming. He then tells us that either he or Grimes won’t be walking out. New Jack goes on the attack straight away with a chain, as Grimes enters the ring with his trusty pizza cutter in hand. The two walk and brawl with weapons around the ring, which is taken up mostly by a stack of twelve tables meant to break a man's fall really badly.


After about five minutes of fighting, Grimes exits the ring, and the two look at each other as he points up. Both men ascend opposite sides of the scaffolding, with Grimes setting off first, but the smaller New Jack making it up first. About six hundred pounds of Jack and Grimes makes the scaffolding shake.


From the ground, we see New Jack reach into his pocket and produce a taser. He even shows us that it works and the crowd beneath gasps. He proceeds to jab it into Vic, though mercifully, because of the camera angle that is used, we can’t actually see that New Jack is really using it. There’s nowhere to go from there though but down, as New Jack gets Grimes to the edge, and throws him over the rail. A blood curdling scream can be heard from commentator Kris Kloss, who said that in that moment, he threw down his headset, knowing there was nothing left to say.


New Jack said on YouShoot that Vic had requested the twelve tables, but that he was aiming for the pole, which I assume means he intended to throw Vic past the tables and towards the ring post. He confirms that the ring had moved from where it originally was, not adding, or maybe not knowing that Vic was the one who moved it. Interestingly, Vic also claims that he was aiming for the turnbuckle, perhaps hoping for it to break his landing. Vic would hit off the ropes, hoping that he would bounce the right way back into the ring, which may have also helped in his miraculous landing.


Immediately following the fall, “The ring announcer, Ron Hed, was screaming for people to leave the building, giving the idea that Grimes’ life was in danger to the fans as they left.” Vic stayed down in the ring until all the estimated one thousand five hundred fans had left. He even worked the paramedics until this point, after which he got up. “In reality, while very bruised up, he was walking around backstage. Grimes was very lucky not to have been hurt worse.” Dave Meltzers there, with maybe the biggest understatement in the history of the Wrestling Observer. Watching the fall, it's incredible that Grimes wasn't more hurt or worse. Vic told us that he laid there in the ring while the paramedics tried to assess him, refusing to cooperate with them until the fans had left. He then tells a story that I have to leave to his words. A brief report in the PWTorch published on March 9th notes that when Vic was contacted for an update on his condition, “he had already returned to his day job the following Monday.” Speaking to Kriss Kloss, Vic references Mick Foley’s first Book, Have a Nice Day. On the back cover, there is a picture of Mick, annotated with every injury he had suffered in his career to that point. Amazingly given what we’ve heard in this video, Vic claims to have had no major injuries in his career.


Over the years, perhaps spurred on by the long history of New Jack incidents over the years, and maybe also encouraged by what we know about Living Dangerously 2000, there have been plenty of theories about whether any of this was real or not. In Figure Four Weekly, Bryan Alvarez notes that “In fact, one of Grimes’ friends was told before the show that the two guys were planning something that they weren’t even letting XPW in on, and if you’ve ever watched XPW, well, that’s saying something.” The way New Jack tells the story, he demanded the match from Rob Black, and there's something quite chilling about the idea that Vic was complicit with this, but he doesn't say otherwise. In his Dark Side of the Ring episode, New Jack says that after the match, he told Grimes that they were even, and this may have been the last time the two ever spoke.


In Vic's podcast interview, he closes talking about Freefall by offering an apology to New Jack. In an interview that was recorded about a year later, not long before New Jack’s passing, billed as his final shoot interview, an inebriated Jack makes reference to Vic’s apology, and plainly doesn’t accept it, citing the vision in his right eye never completely healing.


Ending


I’m sure I can say this and most fans will agree that what happened at Freefall should undoubtedly never happen again. Fortunately though, at the time there were things on the horizon that may have helped this.


In the Observer post Freefall, Dave reported that changes were already coming for XPW. “Shane Douglas, whose Time Warner contract expires on 4/17, is at that point scheduled to take over as booker of XPW. Most likely the really crazy stuff will be toned down at that point.” You're wondering how that went, on July 20th at Baptised in Blood three, Shane would win the XPW World title in his very first match for the promotion. As far as that toned down booking goes, it didn’t exactly come straight away. On the same night Supreme would win an exploding ring scaffold match, when Shane Douglas would shoot Supreme’s opponent Angel with a tranquilizer gun, causing him to fall on his own off the scaffolding. A lesser YouTuber would make a joke here about Angel at least being able to control his own bump through this booking, and I am that lesser YouTuber.


One final thing that really signified that times were changing for wrestling didn’t directly involve XPW, or even WWE. Over on the other side of the United States, on the very same night Ring of Honor held its very first event in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. Built on an emphasis on in ring wrestling, a code of honor, and lots of handshakes, ROH would over the next couple of decades play a big part in shifting wrestling away from what we know of the Attitude era, and towards what it is today. Death match wrestling still exists today, and takes place regularly in promotions like GCW, but never since Freefall has the line been quite so blurred, between what was real and what wasn’t.


Sources:

WON August 30th 1999 - WWE not happy with Vic https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/august-30-1999-wrestling-observer-newsletter-wwf-summerslam-review/

WON September 6th 1999 - PPW and ECW https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/september-6-1999-wrestling-observer-newsletter-week-both-high-and-low/

WON September 20th - Heyman not sure about Vic https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/september-20-1999-wrestling-observer-newsletter-eric-bischoff-fired/

Vic Grimes on Xtreme Memories with Kriss Kloss: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCBxwOrtubg

WON Dec 20th 1999 - Heyman likes Vic https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/december-20-1999-wrestling-observer-newsletter-wwf-armageddon-review/

PWTorch Jan 15th 2000 Guilty as Charged 2000 review: https://members.pwtorch.com/torchbackissues00/torch584/Torch584.shtml

WON Mar 20th 2000 Living Dangerously review: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/march-20-2000-wrestling-observer-newsletter-wwf-leave-usa-network-ecw/

Youshoot: New Jack, September 2009, Kayfabe Commentaries

WON Jun 12th 2000 Grimes’ Deal expiring https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/june-12-2000-wrestling-observer-newsletter-paul-heyman-meets-ecw/

WON Jul 10th Grimes released https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/july-10-2000-wrestling-observer-newsletter-wwf-signs-brock-lesnar/

WON March 4th 2002 Freefall report https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/march-4-2002-observer-newsletter-pride-goes-head-head-wwa-97455/

F4D March 4th 2002 Freefall comments https://members.f4wonline.com/newsletters/figure-four-weekly/f4w349-frye-beats-shamrock-classic-battle-march-4-2002-89236/

PW Torch Mar 9th Vic update: https://vip.pwtorch.com/2022/02/19/vip-2002-back-issue-pro-wrestling-torch-695-march-9-2002-pwtorch-breaks-the-news-of-the-launch-of-tna-by-jarretts-in-detailed-cover-story-mitchell-feature-on-the-return-of-the-nwo-edg/

New Jack final shoot interview, December 2021 ​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeEgbz6Xh2o

Abyss: Making TNA's Monster

 

Among wrestling fans of a certain age, and by a certain age I mean old enough to remember See No Evil, May 19th is a punchline that has long outlasted the joke. It’s certainly not the most easily available film anymore, and the funniest thing about Kane these days is that Hangman tweet about the sheer number of chairshot he took over the years. Despite this, I began a tradition a few years ago where I would make a video about a wrestling related monster for May 19th, and this year I’ve picked TNA’s monster, Abyss. I wanted to explore the making of one of TNA’s most enduring characters, just like I did for Kane last year and Frankenstein's Monster the year before that.

In this video, we'll look at the beginnings of Abyss’ career, and we’ll also look at where the ideas behind the character came from. Then we’ll look at Abyss’ start in TNA.

Early career


Despite Chris Parks getting his first national exposure in 2002, his in ring career goes back longer than you might think. His first match was in early 1995, having been trained by Roger Ruffen, who in his career had some enhancement matches for WWE in 1984. Ruffen was a referee for WWE for over a decade, and in 1998 would take control of the Northern Wrestling Federation based in Ohio, which is still running today. Other wrestlers who Ruffen had a hand in training include fellow TNA alumni Wildcat Chris Harris, and Good Brother Karl Anderson. On a Wrestling road stories podcast with Bodyslam.net, Harris notes that he and Parks started together, and would travel and room together. Once TNA started, you can add James Storm and Slash of the New Church stable to that group. If you saw early TNA and remember those cap guns that Storm used to use in his entrances, Harris told a fun story from the week of TNA’s first show about those same guns. *Clip*

Long before TNA started, Parks would debut in NWF using the name ‘The Original Terminator’, I assume named after the original original Terminator, about whom there had been two films by that point. Parks would wrestle for NWF from the mid-90’s into the 2010’s, though on a less regular basis after becoming Abyss. Knowing Abyss’ reputation for being fiercely loyal to TNA over the years, no doubt he had a similar loyalty to Roger Ruffen, against whom he would even wrestle against in NWF.

By ‘96, The Original Terminator would change his name to Chris Justice, and later Prince Justice, continuing his world record attempt at having the most indyriffic names all assigned to one person. Any 2008 TNA fans who remember the Prince Justice Brotherhood might have just worked out where that God awful name came from. In 2001, Justice, now shortening his name, would arrive in Georgia based NWA Wildside, a former developmental territory for WCW which would become one of the promotions that NWA TNA would look for talent from when it was being planned for in early 2002. Other notable names who wrestled at Wildside include Ron Killings, later known as R-Truth, and a young AJ Styles post WCW closing.

As Justice, Parks would wrestle on NWA TNA’s first ever event, as part of the main event Gauntlet for the Gold match to crown a new NWA World Champion. The list of entrants for this match is long and many varied, which is a nice way of saying that the vast majority had absolutely no business being in a match for the NWA World title, Justice included. Of all the entrants, just two had been World champions of a major US promotion, while most of the rest had been lower card talent elsewhere. In the end the match would come down to the Wall Brother, and the eventual winner Ken Shamrock, who at least had some legitimate UFC success that gave him some credibility as TNA’s first champion. In the match, Justice lasts five minutes forty seconds, making no eliminations but being thrown out by Rick Steiner. Despite not being Abyss yet, he uses what would become known as the Black Hole Slam on Del Rios, who for some reason is cosplaying as Scott Steiner. I can;t imagine Rick Steiner being too happy about that and he was in the match. If you’re curious by the way, in a past life Del Rios was also the short lived mid-90’s WWF character, Phantasio. The one that nearly started a fire backstage, making this assemblage of wrestlers even worse. Speaking about Justice in the match, Jeff Jarrett said on his My World podcast, “his in ring appearance wasn't long, but we all said he's good.” While this makes Parks a day 1 TNA original, he wouldn’t be back for the promotion for the rest of 2002, with Jeff adding that Justice just didn’t fit into any creative plans.

A month after TNA’s first event, Justice would begin working for IWA Puerto Rico, having met the promotions booker Dutch Mantell while working the US indies. It is here a couple of shows in where he would first use the name Abyss, having used the name Cleage initially. I tried to find out what this name actually meant or what it might be in reference to, and all I’ll tell you is that google thinks you mean something else. Abyss would wrestle against many recognizable faces to TNA fans, but not necessarily names they would know. He would wrestle Ricky Banderas, who would later become Judas Mesias in TNA, as well as Glamour Boy Shane, who would later be the referee turned wrestler Shane Sewell. When Dutch Mantell had been booking in Puerto Rico in the 90’s, he’d spotted a wrestler named Doomsday. Dutch would be instrumental in getting Doomsday booked by Jim Cornette for Smokey Mountain Wrestling, playing a vital role in him eventually becoming Kane. That’ll come into play a bit later on. In late 2003, Dutch would arrive in TNA where he would work on the creative team, a little bit after Abyss, but he might well have had a hand in recommending Parks to Jeff Jarrett before that, with whom he has a long history dating back to Jarrett’s early career.

Making the Monster

Now that we’ve gone through Abyss’ route to TNA, let’s take a closer look at how the character was created. When Abyss first arrived in TNA, he attracted some criticism for looking a bit like some kind of hybrid between Kane and Mankind. It’s not hard to see why when you see what Abyss would look like in Puerto Rico, with flames on his gear and mask. By the time he made it back to TNA’s pay per views, he started wearing this Canadian tuxedo, but that only drew more of the Mankind comparisons. It’s fitting then that the person who has been credited with creating the Abyss character, as I hinted earlier, also discovered Kane several years earlier. On his podcast in July 2022, Dutch was asked about this.

Dutch says that he met Chris Parks on an indie some time before TNA, but really got talking to him at the first show in Huntsville Alabama, where episodes one and two of their weekly pay per views were taped. When it became clear that TNA wasn’t going to use Abyss beyond the first night, Parks would call Dutch and ask for work in Puerto Rico. Dutch would tell him he needed a new name, joking with him that Prince Justice wouldn’t sound good in spanish. Dutch then tells us how the mask came about. He told Principe Justicia “you’ll be like a mental patient… …You’re released and all, but to protect yourself from whatever you think you need protecting from, you wear the mask.” It’s hardly Kane’s childhood fire and the psychological scars that left, but it’ll do. One last point Dutch explains about the mask is that he described what he wanted and Parks got it made himself. “He had an idea for it too. Even though he didn’t like it, initially, he did go, actually go out of his way to get a mask.” Dutch stresses the last point, Abyss did not like the gimmick or the name at first, but he did everything he could to make it successful.

Something Dutch alludes to that I hadn’t thought about at all, were the mannerisms of Abyss, the way he would slink around the ring, and his pose that stayed with him in TNA. When James asks Dutch how you get a character that doesn’t talk across to a non english speaking crowd, Dutch says that while Abyss had a manager, he would stand there making gestures to get across that he is some kind of monster. This is similar to something Glenn Jacobs has said about Kane, where he observed his dog tilting his head when listening, and he would use this non-verbal communication as Kane to convey his reactions.

James Romero asks Dutch about the comparisons to Kane and Mankind and whether they were in his mind too, and Dutch says that Mankind was especially, being from a similar “mental patient” origin. Dutch also says that he introduced Abyss by having him run in on a Savio Vega vs Glamour Boy Shane match, and he was over immediately because “here was this big guy, with a mask, they had never seen him before, never seen him on TV, and all of a sudden where’d this guy come from?” One last noteworthy question from the podcast which was asked to start Dutch talking about Abyss was about whether or not he gave him the Black Hole Slam, which Dutch denies. He says that Abyss developed that himself, and that all he gave Abyss was the name and the gimmick. The move has sometimes been compared to the Big Bossman’s slam that he used to do, but when done on much smaller opponents, Abyss would add more rotation. A prefect example of this is when he was feuding with Spud in much like he would do on Spud in UK promotion One Pro Wrestling back in 2006. He would sometimes spin Spud around so many times it looked like he might never stop, Claudio Castagnoli - style. According to a 2019 interview with Sean Ross Sapp, Abyss confirms that he came up with it as “a play on the boss man slam.” He says the more traditional version of the move had always been his finisher, but “as it evolved and as I evolved, I just added the extra spin.” When he was asked who took the move the best, Abyss answered with AJ Styles, and also Matt Sydal.

TNA

On June 4th 2003 but airing later in the week, Abyss would make his official TNA debut. He would have a match on Xplosion, the promotion’s syndicated B-show that complimented the weekly pay per views. His opponent would be Julio Dinero, who despite being with TNA for four months, was only wrestling his third match for the promotion. The match starts in an interesting way, with Mike Tenay on commentary emphasizing the size difference as if he were watching Rey Mysterio vs the Big Show, and while he’s saying all of this Abyss and Julio are chain wrestling. Abyss hits a chokeslam followed by the Black Hole, but Alexis Laree, better known as Mickie James, distracts the referee so there is no count. Twice in the match she attacks Abyss in clear sight of the ref too. While Abyss is erm, ejecting Alexis from the ring, he turns around into a kick from Julio and takes the pinfall loss. Not the most clean of losses but still one in his debut. When asked by Conrad Thompson on My World why Abyss lost on this night, Jeff Jarrett said on My World that it being his first night back he didn’t really need the win, while Julio was a featured act at the time, part of the Gathering led by Raven, and teaming with CM Punk and Alexis.

On June 11th, Abyss would make his TNA pay per view debut in a pretty bizarre way, but he is interjected right into a storyline. We start with an interview conducted by Scott Hudson ahead of a handicap match where Kid Kash is set to face Trinity, Erik Watts and his girlfriend Goldylocks, who is not a trained wrestler. Erik says that he is going to let nothing happen to Goldylocks as long as he is around, which is clearly a foreshadowing statement. In comments that wouldn’t make air in 2025, Scott refers to Trinity being abused by Kid Kash for weeks, which she responds to by asking “does she look abused?”, then telling us, and this is an actual quote, “part of me kind of likes it.” Heard in a vacuum and not in the context of the storyline this reeked of Russo writing. Before she can go any further, Watts is attacked from behind by Abyss, who isn’t named on the broadcast but is referred to as a monster, forcing Goldylocks and Trinity to face Kid Kash by themselves. Trinity actually looks like she might beat Kid Kash, until Abyss runs in and hits a Black Hole Slam, allowing Kash the win.

Over the next few weeks, it would become clear that Kid Kash has some sort of control over Abyss, keeping him locked behind a fence until he is needed to help him win matches. He would have his own in-ring return to pay per views on July 2nd, defeating Erik Watts decisively in a short match. From there he was a regular fixture on Xplosion and the pay per views. In return, Abyss would become a loyal soldier for TNA, sacrificing his body in ever more insane matches, going through boards of tacks, barbed wire and even tables that were on fire. He even turned down an offer to head to WWE as early as 2006, where according to Abyss in a podcast interview with Jim Ross, he was set to be the Undertaker’s opponent at Wrestlemania 23. When the time came for Abyss to slow down the hardcore matches, he managed to in a rather creative way, reinvent himself from the ground up as the mild mannered lawyer brother of Abyss, Joseph Parks esquire. I’ll be totally honest with you, the first appearance of the bumbling Parks who arrived in TNA looking for his brother was the final straw for me, and actually made me stop watching impact. Looking back though, the range that Parks showed is actually quite impressive, having played the typical intimidating big man for most of his career by that point. I’m willing to admit that I was wrong there. In 2020 during the pandemic era of shows, while working for WWE as a producer, we briefly saw Joseph brought back to life as AJ Styles’ statistician, though sadly this didn’t last long. You could say, that Abyss’ loyalty to TNA cost him in the long run, as you don’t often hear much of his legacy in wrestling. He is though, still employed, weirdly about to be part of the dlc for WWE 2K25 having never wrestled a match for the company, and a TNA Hall of Famer, honoured in the company he remained loyal to for so many years.

End


In the episode of My World that I've cited in this video, Jeff Jarrett calls Abyss, “a guy who really put his roots in. Did nothing but produce week after week, year after year.” He later adds, making note that Abyss is one of the more famous TNA names that didn't work for a major promotion beforehand, “I'd put him at the top of the list of success stories of TNA wrestling.” It's not hard to argue that given Abyss’ longevity in the company, and as a character. Speaking to Ring Rust Radio in 2015, while still an active wrestler, Abyss said “longevity in this business is not something that a lot of talents get the privilege to experience. I've been very fortunate and very lucky.”

In 2018, Abyss became the eighth inductee in the TNA Hall of fame. In his speech, he described the honour as something he would “cherish for the rest of his life,” and he made special note of being the first “impact original” to be inducted. To date, the only Impact original until Don West's induction in 2023. It takes a whole lot of loyalty and dedication to achieve such a distinction. It also takes a screw loose, no sense of self preservation, and a metric shitload of willful blindness to the madness that is TNA’s history, but it's still a distinction nonetheless.

Sources:

My World with Jeff Jarrett #178, October 1st 2024 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK3wgAEiDl8
Storytime with Dutch Mantell #11, July 28th 2022 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOdtnQ0kRTA Making a finisher: Abyss’ Black Hole Slam, Fightful September 29th 2019: https://www.fightful.com/wrestling/exclusives/making-finisher-abyss-black-hole-slam

What happened before the Summer of CM Punk? The Timeline of him signing with WWE

 

Well he did it lads, CM Punk main evented night one of a buy one- of Wrestlemania. It feels like a fitting year for Punk to achieve his goal, because 2025 marks twenty years since Punk first signed with WWE. At age forty six, he has become the longest tenured star to get from the developmental territory to the main event, which is not a diss at all, because most never make it. I thought then to commemorate this, I might scour the timeline about two decades ago right now, and follow the timeline of Punk leaving the indies to becoming a WWE Superstar.

In this video, we’ll cover his most notable indie matches, the behind the scenes speculation, and any interviews I could find from the time.

I’ve decided to cover the few months from the first interest that WWE showed in Punk, to when he actually signed his contract. As such, we won’t be covering what's commonly known as the Summer of Punk here, his unexpected Ring of Honor World title reign. You could call it the Spring of Punk maybe.

On April 11th 2005, a week after Wrestlemania twenty-one, CM Punk would wrestle a match for WWE that would air on Sunday Night Heat in Moline Illinois. He would team with Russell Simpson to lose to the team of Simon Dean and Maven, and the most notable thing about the match was Jonathan Coachman and Todd Grisham on commentary thinking that the name of the team was CM Punk, not the man himself, making them sound rather foolish. I won’t go any further into this match here, as I talked about it in a video I made a year and a half ago, in which I was looking for CM Punk’s first televised WWE match. It does serve though, as a useful jumping on point, so we’re going to start here.

There’s nothing really remarkable about April for Punk, except that he couldn’t win a title to save his life. On April 8th he lost to Jimmy Jacobs for the IWA Mid South heavyweight title, a promotion we’ll get back to in a while. On April 22nd he and Don Juan lost in a tournament final to crown the first ever Full Impact Pro tag team champions, then a day later he failed to beat Homicide for the FIP Heavyweight title. Rounding out the month, Punk lost in the opening round of the IWC Super Indy Tournament to eventual winner John McChesney, a bloke I knew nothing about but is still going today apparently. That same tournament was won in the year previous by Sterling James Keenan, better known to WWE fans as Corey Graves. I’m being pretty flippant, but the point I’m trying to make is that Punk wasn’t exactly on his indie farewell tour in April of 2005, and he is barely mentioned in the Newsletters at all except for in ROH results. Even in Ring Of Honor, he had a pretty unremarkable month, defeating Mike Kruel in a four minute match at Stalemate, but as May came around, his name was being passed around quite a bit more.

MAY

On May 8th 2005, Dusty Rhodes would be a guest on Wrestling Observer Live. He talked about a few subjects, but made a point of saying that he was interested in bringing CM Punk back, following his run there in 2003 and 4. When talking about his hopes that TNA would find a new TV deal soon, having just left Fox Sports Net, Dusty had this to say about his vision for Impact: *clip* Just Two days later on May 10th, Dusty would show up for a TNA Impact taping and be told that he would now be booking as part of a committee, with Scott D’Amore, Bill Banks and Jeremy Borash. According to the Observer, Dusty would quit the company that same day, citing the booking inexperience of some of his colleagues in the new group. This career change for Dusty might well have halted any plans of bringing Punk in, but TNA would regain some interest in him later on. IN an interesting twist, by September Dusty would be working for WWE creative, but just before that in August, he would wrestle a match in Ohio Valley Wrestling just before Punk would arrive there. His tag team partner, a very young in his career Cody Runnels, not even using the Rhodes name yet.

Also on May 10th 2005, the next day after having a match on Sunday Night Heat with Val Venis which I talked about in my previous video, Punk would wrestle a dark match at the Smackdown and Velocity tapings, his opponent would be the Amazing Red, competing in his only WWE match ever in his twenty five year long career. The match was released a few months ago in full on the treasure chest that is the WWE Vault YouTube channel, and is particularly noteworthy for seeing Punk work like a much bigger wrestler than himself against the smaller Red. In a reddit AMA a few years ago, Amazing Red made some very cryptic comments about this match which as far as I can tell, are more about him not working for WWE again than about Punk.

On May 14th, CM Punk would have the final match in a violent feud with Jimmy Rave and the Embassy for Ring of Honor. Having had a brutal dog collar match with Rave on May 7th that Rave had won with some unprotected chair shots, Punk would win this time in a steel cage match. The storyline had aimed to turn the Embassy from a comedic undercard group into more serious heels, with them at one point attempting to remove the “straight edge” tattoo on Punk’s abdomen with a cheese grater. Ah yes, early ROH, that young serious wrestling promotion, where Homicide once poured Drano down Colt Cabana’s throat to shut him up? Aye, that Ring of Honor. I only mention Punk’s matches with Rave as they were happening around the same time as his WWE tryouts, and had to be taking a toll on him physically. Just a couple of days after the dog collar match Punk wrestled Val Venis on Heat, and while Val claimed in an interview years later that he was influential on Punk in that match, I bet I know what he learned more from.

Speaking of indie matches, on May 21st Punk would wrestle IWA Mid South promoter Ian Rotten, on a tribute show for Chris Candido, who had recently passed away. The show would include many former ECW names who had worked with Candido, as well as some TNA talent like Elix Skipper, Andy Douglas of the Naturals who was picked for the event by Tammy Sytch, and Shark Boy. IWA Mid South was one of the promotions where Punk first got noticed, and so you could say that Rotten gave Punk one of his first breaks in wrestling. Despite Ian’s hardcore reputation, the two have a pretty straight wrestling match, with some comedy moments like Ian pulling Punk’s tights so that we see a bit more of younger Punk than I was expecting. CM Punk would continue to wrestle for IWA-MS for a few more months, having his last match for them in July, when it was clear that he would be WWE bound.

In the May 23rd Wrestling Observer Newsletter, it would be noted that TNA’s new booking team might still want CM Punk after all, along with two more ROH greats. “The new booking team is interested in getting Bryan Danielson, Samoa Joe and C.M. Punk. Joe is a probable because definite ideas have been discussed for him.” Of the three, Samoa Joe is the only one that would would ever appear for TNA, joining the company a month later at their Slammiversary pay per view.

On May 23rd and 24th, CM Punk would work two more WWE dark matches. On the Monday he would defeat Tough Enough three winner Matt Capotelli, and on the Tuesday he would lose to Scotty Too Hotty. What's most interesting about these matches is that they were Punk’s first in a WWE ring which weren’t in a regular Ring of Honor town. By that time, Ring of Honor had only held one event in Wisconsin during Punk’s time there, and the next would come eight years later. At Death before Dishonor Two night one, Punk and some other bloke would retain the tag titles in the main event against the Briscoes. Despite Punk having quite a few WWE matches to this point, there was still nothing reported that they had any interest in signing him, but this would change a week later.

In the May 30th Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer would write about WWE wanting to sign all three of the ROH wrestlers that TNA had expressed an interest in, apparently just because TNA wanted them. “an internal memo at WWE was circulated to John Laurinaitis telling him he needed to get on the ball and sign C.M. Punk, Bryan Danielson and Samoa Joe, because TNA is after all three. Clearly, WWE will make offers to anyone who even shows a hint of getting over on the new show, or whom they find out TNA shows any interest in. History shows few will turn those offers down.” Mid-2005 was an interesting time for TNA, as Impact had left it’s first TV channel Fox Sports Net, and would eventually debut on Spike TV in October, and were looking for new talent to bring in before then to give them a competitive edge. WWE being WWE didn’t want that to happen, so here’s hoping that Laurinitis wouldn’t fumble again and sign the wrong one legged wrestler, because that’s a thing he definitely did. In the following week’s newsletter Dave provides a brief update, saying that Punk had been offered a deal and would likely start in OVW, which he eventually would. His choice of words when referring to Danielson are interesting though, like he’s some cave dweller that they have to chuck a contract into.

On the same day over in the Figure Four Weekly newsletter, Bryan Alvarez would report on Ring of Honor announcing that Punk would be challenging for the world title on June 18th. He writes, “The big selling point is “Can CM Punk finally win a World title?” Seeing as to how WWE will probably be signing him shortly, I’d say the answer is no.” We would soon find out that Bryan is quite the clairvoyant.

JUNE

On the same day, June 6th, Slam Sports published an interview with CM Punk, in which a great deal of Punk’s time is spent mulling over the differences between WWE and TNA. While he clearly enjoys two companies making offers to him, he notes that the two are at that point worlds apart in terms of size. “This is probably only going to happen to me once the way the wrestling business is, with there being only one place to make a living and TNA trying their best to make it two places. I’m probably never going to see this much attention in my career so I’m just trying to enjoy it.” CM Punk there, also a clairvoyant. He also goes as far as to comment that the state of the wrestling business in 2005 is quote, “in the crapper”, repeatedly noting that TNA at that point didn’t have any TV, and saying that Ring of Honor would only get television is “if a billionaire suddenly decides to give us a million dollars or if we get put on some kind of network or station where we don’t have to fund it.” One final really interesting thing that Punk says, is that he’s been “sitting on an offer for a week”, implying that him leaving at all might not be a certainty. The June 13th Observer offers a little context to this but as we’re going chronologically, we’ll get to that in a minute.

On June 12th, CM Punk would wrestle Roderick Strong at Ring of Honors The Future is Now event in New York. Going into the show, the big talking point was Shane Douglas making an appearance to promote Hardcore Homecoming, his ECW reunion show that was competing with WWE’s One Night Stand. Coming out of it though, CM Punk was the big story. Roderick Strong at this time was an enforcer of sorts for the ROH champion Austin Aries. If you were gunning for the champion, you would have to get past Roddy first, so Punk beating him was very significant. Post match Punk got on the microphone, and stated that his goal was to win the ROH title. There was just one problem though, the internet savvy Ring of Honor fans all knew that Punk had one foot out of the door. In his report on the show, Dave Meltzer would note how the times had changed, as the ECW fans would have drowned Punk out with “you sold out” chants, while just a few years later, the ROH faithful shouted “please don’t go”.

In the June 13th Observer, Dave Meltzer attempts to clarify why Punk might have been sitting on that WWE offer I mentioned earlier, citing that Punk is doing well for himself without needing to report to Ohio Valley Wrestling, WWE’s developmental territory at the time. “Punk is said to be 50/50. The deal with Punk is, between all his indie bookings, his announcing work with ROH and running the ROH wrestling school, he’s not getting rich, but he’s not struggling either. He doesn’t need to be an OVW guy.” Dave also points out that Punk essentially ruled out TNA with his interview. “He gave the impression if it was a big money offer he’d have already signed. He said he only considers that he’s gotten one offer, saying, “Obviously, there’s TNA, but how much of an offer can they give me if they don’t have TV?””

On June 14th, as reported in the newsletters later in the week, Samoa Joe would sign his TNA contract, and would be set to make his first appearance at their Slammiversary pay per view on the 19th. In one last note about CM Punk and TNA, Dave Meltzer claims in the June 20th Observer that TNA had wanted to promote CM Punk vs Samoa Joe on this event, but it wouldn’t happen because Punk would have wanted a much longer match than TNA would be willing to give them. “​​Punk ired some people here by saying he wasn’t going to come in and work with Joe because they weren’t going to let him go 45 minutes. The reaction was, good luck in your 5:00 matches on Velocity.” Dave noted that since TNA still didn’t have a TV deal yet, playing off the famous Ring of Honor trilogy of matches between the two would be an attempt to draw in the internet fans, which is a clever strategy given that those fans were the only market they had access to at the time. In the build up to Slammiversary, TNA had been airing episodes of Impact on it’s own website, which mainly focused on a Chris Candido memorial tournament and not many main storylines to tide them over. In the same newsletter, it was noted that CM Punk was expected to sign his WWE contract that week, and that Ian Rotten had said in a promo, that Punk’s last indie match would be with IWA Mid-South on June 17th, a show that would be titled it’s Clobberin Time. This would end up being false to put it lightly, as Punk would wrestle two more matches for IWAMS, a slew of other final indie dates and a whole ROH World title run but we’ll get to that.

On June 18th 2005, against what everyone expected to happen, CM Punk would defeat Austin Aries to win the ROH championship. Given that all of the ROH fans knew by now that Punk was leaving, the win came as a genuine shock, as everyone expected Punk to bow out never having held the title. In the Observer Dave would note that booker Gabe Sapolsky’s inspiration had been the Dudley Boyz’ final night in ECW, when they would win the tag team titles, and threaten to take them to Vince McMahon. While that would play out as a show long storyline, with them losing the titles later that night. This time Punk would get away with the title, and hold it for nearly two months.

If Punk winning the title was a shock, what happened next was even more of one, as in his victory speech, he would proceed to turn on the fans in attendance, in arguably one of the better promos he’s ever done in his entire career. He told a lengthy story about a snake in the grass that had gotten frozen in the ice, and was thawed out and nursed to health by an old man, only for the snake to attack the man once healthy. Punk likened himself to the snake, and his true nature to being a heel. I strongly recommend you seek this promo out if you’ve never seen it, after this video please. To try to work the fans even further, ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky would lose it in front of fans, claiming that Punk was stealing the belt, and heavily implying that he had gone off script, when in reality it was all part of the plan. In the Observer Dave noted that Punk at that point had one more date advertised, July 8th in Long Island New York. The show would be named Sign of Dishonor, for what Punk would do on that night.

JULY

The table was now laid for what we know today as the Summer of Punk. On July 8th, Punk would enter wearing a suit, a very uncharacteristic thing to do, and would sign his WWE contract on the Ring of Honor championship belt inside the ring, which was seen as an act of disrespect to ROH. While going in to the show everyone expected Punk to lose and be on his way, he would retain the title against future World champion Jay Lethal, and would defend it again the next night against Roderick Strong. There’s one more interesting trivia note about Sign of Dishonor though, it’s actually the first show where Punk used Cult of Personality by Living Colour to walk to the ring to, a song that has become synonymous with him over the years since. He would use this song throughout his last dates with ROH, until his final night with the company, where he would come out in tears to Night Train by the Bouncing Souls, mouthing along with the words. Night Train is a beautiful song about saying goodbye to what you know and moving on without much from your past to hold on to. Punk would use another song from the same album called New Day in his WWE produced documentary, which he was given an unusual amount of control over.

In the July 18th Observer Dave offered a little explanation into what was actually going on. “He’s back on the 7/16 show in Woodbridge, CT, against James Gibson, which may be the title change, being that Gabe Sapolsky believes Gibson right now is as good as anyone in the business. It’s not a lock as Punk has no start date in OVW or WWE right now (but those things change on a dime) and they are going to play this angle out as long as they can.” Challenger after challenger would try, and knowing the dates Punk had left were dwindling, nobody could take the title off him. Ironically, Punk would finally lose to a former WWE star now making a new name for himself on the indies, James Gibson, formerly known as Jamie Noble in WWE. Punk’s final farewell as an ROH roster member would come a day later, at an event titled Punk: The Final Chapter. On the way out, he would put on a forty five minute match, losing to his friend, hey Colt Cabana how ya doing?

Over the next few weeks, Punk would continue to say his farewell to the indie scene. On July 1st and 3rd he would leave IWA Mid South, having matches with Matt Sydal, the future Evan Bourne, and a one hour time limit draw with Delirious. On July 10th he would have his final match for Pro Wrestling Guerilla, a company he had worked for since their fifth event in 2003, beating Ricky Reyes. Finally on August 5th and 6th he would have his final matches for Full Impact Pro, ROH’s little sister promotion who he had worked with regularly for nearly a year.

With all of his indie dates done, Punk would report to OVW officially in mid-September. One final thing from the Wrestling Observer that I’d like to add, is a quote from Dave in the September 19th issue, the week that Punk first checked in in Ohio. “Punk was buried on his Heat appearance backstage, in particular by HHH, Michaels and Hayes. The line on him was that he didn’t know how to get over, and that the way he wrestles is like he’s doing a simulated wrestling match and not working a wrestling match.” I wonder why they didn’t get on? Dave notes in the same report though, that one man who had moved down to OVW on July 10th had really taken a shine to him. “Punk should do fine because he can talk, and because Heyman likes him. Hopefully, like Benoit, Guerrero, Mysterio and Jericho did as time went on, he’ll also eventually learn “how to work.”” Aye I think we can agree that he did.

When you go back and look at some of the biggest stories of 2005, you look at the rise of John Cena and Batista to the main events. You look at the ECW reunion shows, and more controversial ones like the Matt Hardy, Edge and Lita situation, and the ladder match for the custody of Dominic. Didn’t do him any harm. It’s crazy to think about in a way, that a story that fits right in among them, was about an independent wrestler working for the third top promotion in the US, leaving to start at the bottom of WWE., but then CM Punk has always had a way of drawing the headlines. It would take him twenty years from there, but he would finally get to the main event of Wrestlemania. Even if he’s now telling us he didn’t want it anyway!

Sources:

WOL May 8th 2005, Dusty Rhodes mentions Punk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbmFSsmYVsU

WON May 16th 2005 Dusty puts a word in at TNA: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/may-16-2005-observer-newsletter-dusty-rhodes-removed-tna-booker-chris/

Amazing Red AMA https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/wrsgv7/this_is_the_amazing_red_ask_me_anything/

WON May 30th 2005 WWE wants Punk: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/may-30-2005-observer-newsletter-upn-moves-smackdown-friday-ecw-ppv/

WON June 6th 2005 WWE wants Punk update: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/june-6-2005-observer-newsletter-future-ecw-simon-inoki-named-president/

F4W June 6th 2005 Bryan predicts ROH title match: https://members.f4wonline.com/newsletters/figure-four-weekly/f4w519-road-wwe-tacoma-662005-88101/

Slam Sports CM Punk Interview, June 6th 2005: https://slamwrestling.net/index.php/2005/06/06/cm-punk-mulls-over-his-future/

WON June 13th 2005 Rules out TNA: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/june-13-2005-observer-newsletter-wwe-draft-lottery-begins-ufc-53-recap/

WON June 20th 2005 ROH 6/12 report, TNA and IWAMS notes: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/june-20-2005-observer-newsletter-ecw-one-night-stand-97858/

WON June 27th 2005 Punk wins ROH title https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/june-27-2005-observer-newsletter-tna-slammiversary-cm-punk-wins-roh/

WON July 18th 2005 Dragging out Punk title reign https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/july-18-2005-wrestling-observer-newsletter-death-shinya-hashimoto-wwe/

WON September 19th 2005 Punk reports to OVW https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/september-19-2005-observer-newsletter-wwe-q1-results-cmll-vs-uwa/