CM Punk vs Austin Aries (IWA MS, 9-17-2004)

IWA Mid-South Ted Petty Invitational, Highland, IN

Continuing on with the 2004 TPI! This is a matchup of ROH-approved indie wrestling stars. Punk made his bones in IWA Mid-South, though, or at least largely so; that’s where he got the first big attention of his career, mainly for his feud with Chris Hero because people just weren’t having 55- and 93-minute matches back then, but they did.

Aries came out of Milwaukee. I will mention that Aries was the only wrestler who was ever rude to me as a fan at these shows. He wasn’t mean, and the incident wasn’t offensive or really much of an incident at all, and it didn’t make me dislike him. He also was not Being a Heel, no. Just kind of a dick, which is not unusual news about Austin Aries now, of course.

This is a step up from the three tournament matches that precede it on this night (Sydal-Rinauro, Webb-Hallowicked, Sabin-Rainman) in part because Punk and Aries combine for a better twosome than those guys do, in part because they were familiar with working together, and also in part because the crowd is way more interested in them than the other matches. They’re both bona fide to the live audience; the other matches did not have that dynamic.

Aries does some really nice knee work in this match, and really nice work overall. As much as I might clown on Aries for his general actual personality and how hateful and mean-spirited a person he really seems to be, he is a tremendous wrestler and has been for a long time. You have to work pretty hard to discount his talent and ability, though if you want to I don’t care, what skin would it be from mine own ass?

The knee work starts after Punk misses a running knee strike on the outside and bashes the ring post. Aries keeps trying to take the leg fully out and put Punk away, but one of the main stories of this TPI going in is that Punk — who had competed in three previous TPI/Sweet Science 16 tournaments — was really gunning to win this one. He was IWA homegrown, for whatever it matters, and he was a big star, and it was maybe his time in 2004.

So Punk is resilient as hell, battling the tenacity of Aries. Punk goes for the Pepsi Plunge, a stupid move everyone loved all the same, but Aries blocks and hits a killer super brainbuster. By that point the crowd are entirely on their feet, and when Aries tries to hit his own Pepsi Plunge, Punk counters with an inverted (back to the ring) version for the win and you get the nice pop.

It’s a really good match of its type. Punk was never the consummate technician and maintained a sort of charming clumsiness up until the end of his wrestling days, in part because he’s really not a natural athlete like so many of his peers were. He always struck me as a guy who had to work extremely hard even compared to his fellow hard workers to get as good as he was, because this just didn’t come naturally to him physically like it did some others. But he had the drive and determination to be great, and he became a great all-around performer. And anyway, he had the natural legitimate charisma and presence when speaking that a lot of better athletes would kill to have, and he also took to a lot of “The Little Things” quicker than many do.

Or at least that’s how it’s always seemed to me.

Rating: 3.5/5