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58%
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Ranked #15,993
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Controversial, out-spoken, brash... those are just three words that describe the man known worldwide as CM Punk, and during his tenure in Ring of Honor, he more than lived up to those labels. He also established himself as one of the finest professional wrestlers in the world today with historic bouts against the likes of Samoa Joe, Homicide, Bryan Danielson, & Christopher Daniels, and will forever be considered a legend in ROH. But for three months in the summer of 2005, Punk shocked Ring of Honor fans & officials alike and it all began one night in June when ROH gathered to bid farewell to one of their own as Punk challenged for the ROH World Title one final time. What happened that evening kicked off three months of chaos as Punk took the World Title hostage and left ROH scrambling to find the man that would dethrone him. They were three of the most exciting, unpredictable, chaotic months in ROH's history, and they have since come to be known as "The Summer of Punk"...
--TMDb
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Review by Chad
Added: September 6, 2014
I attended a Ring of Honor wrestling show last month, and I was incredibly impressed with the show that they put on. I had heard of the promotion before, as just about any wrestling fan has, and I had only heard of a grand total of three wrestlers on the card, but my main reason for going was just to see a wrasslin' show. I wasn't sure what to expect from a house show from a third-tier promotion, filled mostly with wrestlers who I'd never heard of, in a little firehouse in a small town. I just figured it would be a fun night out, and worst case scenario, I was out the ten bucks I spent on the ticket. These wrestlers quickly won me over with some great matches and enjoyable performances, and really, all of those guys (and the four ladies) got my respect. So, I picked up a handful of DVDs from the merch booth, and the first one covers one of the most infamous angles in ROH's history: the "Summer of Punk" angle from 2005.
The uninitiated WWE fans may find that this angle sounds a little familiar, and rightfully so: WWE recycled a lot of the material in 2011 and tried to reproduce the results. See, back in 2005, CM Punk was the indie darling who could do no wrong. He had a gimmick that worked as a babyface and as a heel, he was incredibly good on the microphone, and he could back it all up with solid ring performances. ROH was his home at the time, and he quickly became one of the top stars in the company... and then WWE spotted him and sent him a contract offer. Punk accepted, and all of the fans knew that he was jumping ship. Being the "good guy" in the company, he was met night after night with chants of "Please don't go" and "Thank you Punk" from the fans, and on his final night with the company, he received a shot at the company's world heavyweight title.
To everybody's surprise, he won the belt. He received thunderous applause from the crowd, and then he grabbed a microphone... and completely ripped the fans to shreds. He called them puppets, he laughed at them for falling for his bullshit, and he informed them that he was taking this belt - the most important belt in the company - with him to the WWE. In the span of no more than two minutes, the fans went from cheering and chanting his name to calling him "CM Pussy" and screaming "Fuck you, Punk!"
Over the course of the next month, he would have "one more match" with various wrestlers who would try to win the belt back before he left so that he couldn't take it with him. Every time, he'd swear that this was it, this was their last chance, and then something would happen to draw him back in. Mick Foley would show up and cut a promo on him, goading him into one more match. Foley would show up again and hold him over a twenty-foot balcony until he agreed to just one more match. Another wrestler would steal the belt and tell him he could have it back... if he fought for it in one more match. You get the idea, and the angle played out incredibly well. Fans never knew if THIS would be the night, if THIS would be the guy to take it, and if THIS would be his final night in the company. It made for some edge-of-your-seat matches, and the fact that the matches themselves were incredible did nothing to hinder that.
So, this two-disc set features the entire angle, start to finish, and runs for about six hours total. It features all of the matches and promos, and the lineup goes like this:
1. CM Punk vs. Austin Aries - Death Before Dishonor III - 6/18/05
2. CM Punk vs. Jay Lethal - Sign of Dishonor - 7/8/05
3. CM Punk vs. Roderick Strong - Escape From New York - 7/9/05
4. CM Punk vs. James Gibson - Fate of an Angel II - 7/16/05
5. CM Punk vs. Christopher Daniels - The Homecoming - 7/23/05
6. CM Punk vs. Samoa Joe vs. James Gibson vs. Christopher Daniels - Redemption - 8/12/05
7. CM Punk vs. Colt Cabana (2 out of 3 falls match) - Punk: The Final Chapter - 8/15/05
WWE fans who think that the disc's lineup looks a little lacking should be aware that, unlike WWE's typical five-minute matches, ROH matches tend to run much longer. In fact, the shorter matches on the disc still top out at around thirty minutes, but they never get boring or sluggish. These are incredibly gifted wrestlers who manage to keep every minute of their matches exciting, and this is the kind of stuff that got me into wrestling in the first place. I thought that they just didn't do it like this anymore, but apparently, I was looking in the wrong places. WWE likes to focus too much on drama and soap opera shenanigans, while TNA doesn't really have a clue in hell how to run a show or book their guys. ROH keeps it simple: "here's two great wrestlers, they both want to be the best, they might hate one another, let them wrestle and figure out who the better man is." It's simple, but it works.
I should point out that this is not a documentary release in any way; instead, it's simply a compilation of the footage from this angle. You get the matches and the promos, and that's it. There are no talking heads discussing the material, CM Punk himself is not involved with the disc in any way, and there are no bonus features. What you see is what you get, but I definitely felt like I got my money's worth. The only minor thing that I can complain about is the aspect ratio, which I felt was a little off. I'm far from a technical guy on matters like that, but it did seem a little horizontally stretched on my screen. This is far from a deal-breaker, as you do get used to it after a few minutes, but it's a little jarring at first and I felt that it could have been fixed before release. Throw some bars on the sides if need be, but don't stretch it.
That minor issue aside, I really can't recommend this one enough. If you're a fan of CM Punk or ROH in general, it's a no-brainer: this is an amazing DVD set that deserves a spot on your shelf. If you're a fan of WWE or TNA and have never experienced what this company has to offer, you owe it to yourself to check it out and see what all of the fuss is about. There's a reason that CM Punk became such a household name, and this DVD showcases it... but it also showcases the guys who helped get him there. Huge thumbs up, 9/10.
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