Book One:
The Dark Knight Returns
He’s got the homestretch all to himself. The boss told him to take as long as he needed, to say what he’s been waiting seven years to say. The truth is, he doesn’t know what he’s going to say. He doesn’t want to plan anything out. He just wants to experience the energy from the crowd. He wants to hear it. He wants to see it. He wants to “feel it.”
Then those first familiar notes of ‘Cult of Personality’ hit the PA System of the United Center. He hugs his friends, stretches his arms, and takes a deep breath. For seven years, the crowd chanted for him to come back. Now, it’s on him. This is his chance to say everything he wants to say. The show is live. There are no do-overs. This is his moment. This is his story. This is his time and he knows that he will live and die by the next words that come out of his mouth.
“This would be a good death,” he thinks to himself. “But not good enough.”
CM Punk shocked the wrestling world when he debuted for All Elite Wrestling on August 20, 2021. The rumors were rampant. People were pretty sure that Punk would be debuting on the second episode of AEW Rampage, the company’s new Friday night show. But they weren’t completely sure. Not until they heard the first few notes of ‘Cult of Personality.’ Punk had sold out the United Center on a rumor and when he walks out on stage, he receives one of the loudest ovations of his career.
There are tears in his eyes. The genuine emotion behind those eyes – the gratitude, the peace, the acceptance of the fact that he is worthy and he is loved – nobody has ever seen that from Punk before. He’d been excited. He’d been happy. But he had never been as moved as he is on this night.
The emotion continues as he addresses the crowd.
“I heard you,” he tells Chicago. “For seven years, I heard you.”
And, he probably did. CM Punk swore that he would never return to the world of professional wrestling. That chapter of his story was over. The world had changed. It wasn’t fun anymore. He was getting older. He was getting bitter. And he didn’t want that for himself. He didn’t want that to be his legacy.
“If any of my personal choices or decisions related to my life made you feel disappointed or let down, I understand,” Punk tells his city. “If you all try to understand that I was never going to get healthy – physically, mentally, spiritually, or emotionally – staying in the first place that got me sick in the first place.”
Chicago erupts. They forgive him whatever delusional trespasses they may have put on him for leaving WWE. They understand. And they’re just glad to have their hero back. It’s a celebration. A homecoming. A happy ending to one story, and the beginning of another. A last dance, and a first one.
But now, the celebration is over. His opponent, the first man he will wrestle in seven years, is Darby Allin. Punk’s a fan. Darby Allin, Punk would later say, would have been his favorite wrestler as a kid. Clad in tights, jean shorts, and with half of his face painted, Darby Allin embodies everything that is right about the professional wrestling business. He is young, he is hungry, he is focused. He’s indestructible, even if only in his mind.
But, if you were to ask him, Darby Allin might tell you that he is broken, as well. His own childhood was rough, much like Punk’s. His uncle died in a car accident when Darby was younger and, legend has it, Darby Allin paints half of his face and body to reflect the part of himself that died when his uncle died.
This duality reflects Darby’s mind, his heart, his soul. Half of him is young, energetic, willing to learn, eager to listen. The other half of him is dark, angry… rotting. Most of the time, Allin is able to keep this duality at bay. He can control it and he errs on the side of good more often than not. But he’s only one bad day away from embracing the dark night of his soul completely.
Punk knows that, and while he wants to defeat Darby Allin at All Out 2021, he doesn’t want to be the one to push Allin off the ledge. There’s a balance, there. Punk doesn’t want to be the catalyst for Darby’s dark side to take over, but he does want to win because, if he doesn’t, what else is there? If he can’t go, if he can’t fight, if he can’t win, why did he return?
“This could all end for me,” Punk thinks to himself. He hasn’t wrestled for seven years. He’s nervous. He’s scared. Does he still have what it takes? Did he ever?
The thoughts motivate him. The doubts inspire him. At the gym, he runs faster, he jumps higher, he kicks harder. Doubts? He’s always had them. But he’s never listened to them, never been seduced by them. He’s never let them win. To doubt himself now would be to sign his death warrant; to hand the victory to his two-faced foe. He closes his eyes, turns up the music, and pushes himself deeper, further, harder.
“The time has come,” he thinks to himself. Or is it somebody…is it something…else? “You know it in your soul. For I am your soul. You cannot escape me. You are puny. You are small. You are nothing – a hollow shell, a rusty trap that cannot hold me. Smoldering, I burn you. Burning you! I flare, hot and bright, and fierce, and beautiful. You cannot stop me. Not with wine or vows or the weight of age. You cannot stop me but still you try – still you run. You try to drown me out. But your voice is weak.”
For years, he was the voice of the voiceless. Is he still? Do they even need him to be their voice anymore, or have they found their own? What — or who, exactly — is he fighting for?
The answer is now what it’s always been; he’s fighting for himself.
And that fight takes place on September 5, 2021. It isn’t a long match; it doesn’t need to be. Darby Allin gives CM Punk everything he has. He fights like his life depends on it, and maybe it does. Just a little bit.
Punk’s life depends on it, too. This return would all be for naught if Punk can’t beat Darby Allin. The bumps hurt but then, they always did, didn’t they?
“This should be agony,” he thinks to himself. “I should be a mass of aching muscle – broken, spent, unable to move. And were I an older man, I surely would. But I’m a man of thirty – of twenty again. The rain on my chest is a baptism. I’m born again.”
Salvation comes when the referee counts to three. He does it. He defeats Darby Allin. He silences that voice, if only just for a little while.
The bell rings and he breathes a sigh of relief. He gets to his feet and extends his hand to Darby, unsure of whether Allin will take it or not. Will this defeat break him? Will he let the dark half consume him, or can he still fight it off? Punk doesn’t know.
“The scars go deep, too deep,” Punk thinks, still with his hand outstretched. “I close my eyes and listen. Not fooled by sight, I see him…as he is.”
He looks at his battered and beaten opponent. Darby’s paint has worn thin; most of it has fallen off. On this night, anyway, the good overtakes the bad.
Punk reaches out his hand further to his opponent and brings him close.
“I see… a reflection, Darby,” he whispers in Allin’s ear. “A reflection.”
Join us next month for Book Two of The Dark Knight Returns: CM Punk’s Return to Professional Wrestling. After defeating Darby Allin, Punk gains a little confidence. But will he lose it just as quickly when he comes face to face with the man, the mutant, the mad king himself, Eddie Kingston? Tune in next month to find out. Same Bod-Time, same Bod-Channel.
Follow Nick on Twitter/X at @WesternRebel and on BlueSky at @westernrebel.bsky.social.
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