ROH Punk: The Final Chapter, Chicago Ridge, IL
The main event of the show, two hometown boys going at it one more time. Up to this point in their careers, as best you can tell from internet record keeping, they’d met 37 times in one-on-one matches in match from IWA Mid-South, Mid-American Wrestling, FIP, XICW, IWC, 3PW, NWA-TNA, ROH, and other promotions. Overall coming in, Punk has the slight edge, going 18-16-13 against Cabana in one-on-one matches. Inside ROH, they had a pair of matches in December 2002, splitting them, Cabana winning at Night of the Butcher, Punk at Final Battle.
Punk had signed recently with WWE, where he would be reporting to developmental at OVW starting in September. He comes out to Bouncing Souls’ “Night Train” here, a fitting goodbye song. He’s got tears in his eyes. If you weren’t around then — some people are young, some people didn’t watch at the time, whatever — this was truly very emotional.
Punk’s decision to sign with WWE didn’t seem to come lightly, he had been a champion for independent wrestling, for Ring of Honor in particular. He had been the trainer of the first class at their wrestling dojo. He believed in the cause. But he probably really had done all there was for him to really do on the independent scene. He’d had a small run with TNA and that just didn’t go anywhere. He wasn’t a “Japan guy,” not in that he might not have wanted to wrestle there, but he didn’t have the body type or the style or whatever, he’d done one tour with ZERO-ONE in 2003 and that was it.
So WWE was the next step. And I mean, yes, it was also the biggest possible game in town. It seemed 50/50 whether he’d really make it there, as body, style, look, general attitude (Punk was a pretty open book and very oustpoken) all could have killed his chances. But he also always just had it. That’s where the second 50 came from. And obviously he made it happen and became a major star.
Some people thought Cabana — bigger, better natural athlete, funny, could wrestle — was a better WWE prospect than Punk. I never saw that, to be honest. I liked Cabana (still do), but his is really a small room act, and I wasn’t sure if he had a major league act in him. He never quite got the chance to prove whether he did or didn’t, even though he would also wind up in OVW and then in WWE for a cup of coffee. He’s now in AEW, but it’s as a veteran hand doing basically nothing in a stable. That’s not really Colt Cabana as I think of Colt Cabana. He’s just a guy out there, which is not a knock.
Actually, Punk’s entrance does start with the familiar AFI song he’d been using, lights in the Frontier Fieldhouse beating to match the song’s thump. That plays through (it’s a short song), and then we get to the Bouncing Souls song.
He tours the entire ringside at a leisurely pace, slapping hands, short personal greetings to dedicated fans he knew, including one teenage girl I remember from a Highland, Ind., IWA Mid-South show in 2004. She came to that show with her mom and was a big CM Punk fan, maybe 13 or 14 years old, somewhere in there. But it somehow got to Ian Rotten that the kid would like to meet Punk if possible, I’d guess her mom asked at the door but I’m not sure about that. And I remember hearing Ian and Punk chatting behind where I was sitting a bit before bell time, and Ian kinda trying to talk Punk into it. Punk had a minor grumpy stance about the ordeal, but finally agreed, and he stopped next to where I was sitting to look around. I asked if he was looking for the girl, he said yes, I pointed him in her direction.
Despite that minor grumpy stance, he talked to her and her mom for several minutes, and he remembered them at every show I saw them at that he was on and that I also attended. Here, he gives her a quick little hug and pats her mom on the shoulder, as well. Just one of those little things you remember when you become a regular at certain shows, or certain areas with a lot of the same talent working different companies.
Once Punk finally enters the ring, Cabana holds the ropes open for him, then steps back. Punk hits his knees at center ring, and streamers fly in with chants of “Thank you, Punk!”
Intros see Cabana get a warm reception, too, as he always did. He knows this isn’t his moment, and so does everyone, but nobody wants Colt to feel slighted. And there’s no feud here. This is Punk leaving indie wrestling/ROH behind wrestling his friend, someone he’d been all over with, trained together, wrestled against one another, teamed with one another, made their names together.
Ace Steel, trainer to both men, and Samoa Joe take seats ringside to watch the match.
This is two out of three falls and I think plenty of us in the crowd expected that they’d go broadway at 1-1. Punk had also lost the ROH title the night before to James Gibson, and it ended both a short “thank you” reign and allowed Punk to drop the character he’d been using in the original “Summer of Punk.”
It’s also only fitting that Dave Prazak is calling this match. Lenny Leonard is out, with Gabe Sapolsky’s “Jimmy Bower” character in his place, which is at least better than Gabe’s “Chris Lovey” character.
The first fall is a lot of scientific, clean wrestling, until Cabana stomps Punk and gets a little bit cocky with a strut. Cabana and Punk were always very opposite in demeanor, style, character, and I think a lot of that was very real. Talked about it some recently for their 2004 Chicago Ridge match with the Briscoes. They worked together because they were so different but it was clear they had chemistry somehow, an opposites attract thing. But that also made it easy to pit them against one another. Punk was a serious guy, full stop. Cabana certainly could be, but he used his charisma and jokey demeanor to get under peoples skin, to bait them, to fool them, and also it was just the way he was.
Here, Punk shoves Cabana after the strut and they argue a minute. Cabana appeals to Samoa Joe at ringside to ask if it was funny or not, and when Punk looks over there, too, he grabs a side headlock. They do a short crisscross that Cabana stops and tries to trick Punk with the “look up!” bit. Doesn’t work, Punk keeps his eyes locked on Cabana. “Then look down,” Cabana says, and stomps Punk on the foot.
Punk calls this “all your stupid British crap,” admonishing Cabana to “get serious.” When Cabana stomps the other foot after apologizing, Punk waits for referee Todd Sinclair to turn his back, then just uppercuts Cabana right in the balls. Punk follows that with Cabana’s Colt 45 move, winning the first fall, and then teasing Cabana with kicks to the head before stomping him in the spine. “Come on, jokester!”
Punk in true control now, methodically hammering away at Cabana, who finally does “get serious” and start fighting back harder. But Punk keeps the control anyway, this is his style of match and he has the momentum now. Punk breaking out a fair bit of his “old” offense, stuff he’d abandoned in the last couple of years to refine his style a bit, springboard dropkicks and stuff. But he drops the second fall when Cabana sneaks behind him coming off the ropes, bouncing off with a monster lariat to even things up at one fall apiece.
After the two falls, both guys are down and recovering, and come to at the same time. It all comes down to this, the third and final fall. And they go nose-to-nose. This is it. After years together, friend or foe, this is it.
They start trading vicious chops, talking shit, daring one another to lay it in. Forearm from Punk, elbow from Cabana, forearm from Punk. Another one. Cabana just eating several of them and comes back with his jabs, chest slaps, shit that looks “silly” but is effective.
Punk’s the first on the floor, but an Asai moonsault attempt is cut off halfway, and Cabana’s the one outside. He avoids Punk’s baseball slide, and tries a sunset flip bomb from inside to to the floor, also blocked, and Punk hits a rana from the apron to the floor.
Once they get back inside, Cabana counters a tilt-a-whirl with a small package for two, and they’re countering a lot of stuff, going back-and-forth, nobody able to really take hold of the match. Punk takes the Flair Flip out to the apron but gets nailed by a Cabana springboard, and then the Asai moonsault connects.
Back in, Cabana has the Boston Crab on. Again, last guy to make a basic Boston Crab work as a finish consistently in U.S. wrestling was, I think, Rick Martel. More trading, Punk landing a nice combo ending on a running knee for two. Punk gets caught backwards up top and gets almost kilt up real good on an inverted DDT by Cabana, man almost didn’t make it to OVW.
Punk does come back pretty quickly with the Anaconda Vise in the center of the ring. Nobody in the crowd seems to buy this as the finish, really no noise for it, and Cabana quickly reaches the ropes because there’s no point dragging out something the crowd aren’t buying.
Punk calls for the Pepsi Plunge, and he’s going for it, but Cabana is doing his best to block, and he does manage to unhook his arms and drops back with a Samoan drop from the second rope instead. But Punk sneaks a crucifix pin attempt for two before they once again meet eye-to-eye on their knees, getting to their feet before throwing strikes again, both men exhausted and beaten up at this point.
Punk hits the Shining Wizard, but the pin is too close to the ropes so Cabana gets a hand there. They trade cradle attempts and lo and behold, Cabana gets Punk down for three, much to the sudden surprise of the crowd. But as soon as they let it settle in, the crowd are on their feet and clapping if not going wild or anything.
Post-match, Cabana and Punk embrace, the locker room empties into the ring, and it’s a celebration of someone who meant a ton to his era of indie wrestling and ROH. Everyone kneels when Punk takes the mic, and he demands they all stand up instead. Even the Rottweilers are out at the entrance, and Homicide can’t help but smile when Punk acknowledges them. When he’s done speaking, he’s hoisted onto the shoulders of Cabana and Ace Steel, and the crowd chants his name.
It’s a very good match, nothing classic as far as the match itself goes, but a tremendous moment for ROH, CM Punk, Chicago wrestling, and everyone who was there. The match has a lot of standard Punk-Cabana stuff, some new stuff, and it really did wind up being, to this day 16 years later, the last match these two ever had against one another.
Tape Machines Are Rolling 
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