Top Ten Cases: CM Punk’s Attires of Awesomeness

Last Friday the wrestling world was shocked and saddened to hear that the legendary Randy Savage had passed away. Three nights later, following Raw, most fans were talking about the two tributes from that night’s show: WWE’s great video and CM Punk’s wrestling attire.

Frequent visitors of this blog know that I’m a bit of an attire fiend. I reminisce about the days when wrestlers would debut a new outfit at each major PPV, and I chastise the Superstars who don’t break out something new or special at WrestleMania. And don’t even get me started with Kane, who’s had, like, two different pairs of tights over the past ten years. So simply because he’s got a wide variety of trunks that he switches up on a regular basis, CM Punk is cool with me. When he sported the crazy beard, I was sold.

Truth be told, he’s more than cool with me. With Edge gone, CM Punk has cemented his status as my favorite active competitor in wrestling today. While I take great pride in saying that I was a big fan of Edge before I had any right to be (I could tell he was something special from when his debut vignettes were playing), I take quite the opposite route with CM Punk. I knew absolutely nothing about him before he appeared on ECW, and it took a few weeks before I genuinely warmed up to him. His wrestling style was cool and I liked his theme music, but it’s not as if I was won over immediately. Now, I can’t possibly fathom why WWE isn’t emptying their bank accounts to hold onto this extremely special talent.

So, in this special edition of Top Ten Cases – special because it lists five things and not ten – I will countdown CM Punk’s most awesome attire (during his WWE run, anyway).

5. Star Colt
Confession time! I could only find four uniquely special wrestling attires, so I picked this moment from Punk’s Raw commentary days as I felt it perfectly exemplified the Straight Edge Superstar’s personality. By wearing a Colt Cabana t-shirt, Punk showed that he does what he wants (damned the consequences), is loyal to his friends, and appreciates the talented wrestlers plying their craft and attempting to make a name for themselves on the Indie circuit. That, or he just likes powder blue shirts.

4. The North Sider
I’m not a big baseball fan, and even when I do watch I’m loyal to my local Yankees, but I do have to admit that the first variation of Punk’s Chicago-inspired wrestling attire was when he whipped out this pair, which features the color scheme and logo of the Chicago Cubs. And this particular pair of trunks accentuated another facet of Punk’s character – his fierce devotion to his Chicago Made roots.

Plus the red, white, and blue against the black background reminds me of when Kurt Angle first incorporated black into his patriotic singlet designs.

3. Wardrobe Change
Many people may not realize this, but this past Monday’s Raw wasn’t the first time CM Punk honored Macho Man during his WWE run. However, the other homage is a bit more subtle and was a throwback to Savage’s various wardrobe changes at WrestleMania IV. In his first match of the WWE Championship tournament, Savage wore pink trunks, yellow boots, and yellow knee pads. The following round, he wore red trunks, yellow boots, and yellow knee pads. And for the finals, he wore orange trunks, yellow boots, and yellow knee pads. In addition to that, he wore a different sequined robe for each entrance, and Elizabeth wore a different dress for each match as well.

Well, Punk did the same thing at Raw’s 2008 King of the Ring tournament. In his first round match against Matt Hardy, Punk wore black trunks with white accents. In match number two against Chris Jericho, he wore black trunks with blue accents. And in the finals against William Regal, he wore blue trunks with black accents. In one night CM Punk did two things to make me a big fan: He showed off that he has a variety of ring attires, and he displayed his appreciation for the industry’s history.

2. Go Joe
To my recollection, this was the first time CM Punk departed from his traditional style to give us something really special. Debuted at WrestleMania XXVI and not seen since, Punk unveiled this camouflaged design, which had “CM Punk” written in across the front (stylized to look like the G.I. Joe logo). Hell, the guy appreciates old cartoons (although he’s probably more a fan of the comic) – another reason to be a fan!

1. Macho Sadness

Surprised? Well, you shouldn’t be!

What made this particular outfit so special was that it was a pure dedication to Macho Man Randy Savage, as it was a complete departure from his usual style. It wasn’t the standard Chicago flag-inspired design, just with three stars instead of four. Nope, it was the classic, large, three Macho Man stars. And like Savage, the colors were bright and flamboyant, unlike the typically bold selection of colors Punk styles. Aside from the rear of the trunks saying “CM Punk” instead of “Macho Man,” Punk’s outfit was virtually identical to what Savage wore throughout the 80’s. Even as a heel, Punk was able to pull off this touching tribute. Not many in his position would have.