It was the buzz of the weekend. At a wrestling event for MKE Wrestling in Wisconsin (the indie promotion run by Ring of Honor‘s Silas Young), a masked wrestler stormed the ring during a match involving indie veteran Ace Steel. At MKE’s The Last Knight, Steel, accompanied by SHIMMER co-owner and former ROH announcer Dave Prazak, defeated Daryck St. Holmes. At the end of the match, a masked man ran in and delivered a Go To Sleep to St. Holmes, before departing as quickly as he arrived.
Who was this masked man who put @StHolmesEsq to sleep??? @DavePrazak @acesofsteel pic.twitter.com/o5Mcak3uIE
— MKE Wrestling (@MKE_Wrestling) April 20, 2019
At first, the action seemed wildly random, but as tweets from fans and MKE owner, Silas Young, began to filter in following, the buzz was out. Had former WWE Champion CM Punk, who left the world of professional wrestling in 2014, made an unannounced run-in for the Wisconsin promotion?
Here is some PUNK running in a match last night @MKE_Wrestling you never know who’s in gonna show up at our shows. Former world champions have been stopping in at the last couple shows!!! Don’t miss out on May 17 at our new home Buenavista Banquets 76&oklahoma next to AMF lanes https://t.co/rr8xVH8UJ0
— silas young (@lastrealmanROH) April 20, 2019
More Info On CM Punk’s Indie Appearance
At first, fans were not convinced. The hunger for a CM Punk return has been a salivating notion for Punk and indie fans nearly immediately after his departure from WWE and continues to this day. CM Punk chants are still heard in WWE arenas and his arrival in AEW has been rumored (more wishful thinking than anything) since day one of the announcements of the promotion’s birth. But as the evidence began to take hold, people began to dig further into the situation.
To begin with, let’s look at the people involved. Ace Steel is a Chicago indie veteran who debuted in 1991. In the late 1990s, he was running his own wrestling school, Steel Domain Wrestling, and one of his students was a young man named Phil Brooks, who was using the name CM Punk from his backyard wrestling days as part of the tag team The Chick Magnets. Steel was a huge advocate for CM Punk early in Punk’s wrestling career, bringing him into TNA/IMPACT Wrestling and Ring of Honor, where Punk first encountered Dave Prazak, who was an announcer with the company. Two of Punk’s earliest mentors would be a good drawing for an unannounced run-in for the former Voice of the Voiceless.
CM Punk started his wrestling career in Wisconsin with the North American Wrestling Federation (NAWF), before moving over to another Wisconsin indie, Mid American Wrestling (MAW). MAW’s main venue was the Knights of Columbus Hall in West Allis, a suburb of Milwaukee. The exact same venue where MKE Wrestling held The Last Knight. Now MKE’s main venue, the KoC Hall is scheduled to be torn down soon. With one of his earliest temples where he developed as a pro wrestler on the verge of being demolished, Punk may also feel an honor debt to a building that proved to be a launching pad for his early career.
Since departing WWE, CM Punk has rather famously transitioned to the world of MMA, competing twice for the UFC. Since he’s been training for MMA (and continues to do so), Punk has been working out of Roufusport Gym in Milwaukee, training under Duke Roufus. Punk was in town this weekend training and was photographed earlier in the day – at West Allis Central High School – by a fan.
On closer inspection of the masked man who ran-in on Friday night at MKE Wrestling, he’s wearing the exact same hoodie that Punk was wearing earlier that day with the fan at West Allis High School.
a closer look to him at yesterday's show. pic.twitter.com/QftsnkP4x7
— Lucky N17 (@Lu_Ky17) April 21, 2019
As more and more wrestling journalists dug into the story and Punk’s alleged run-in, Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com brought up that this wasn’t exactly the first time that Punk had done something like this. Back in 2015, Punk appeared for Freelance Wrestling in Chicago under a hood as the “nameless mentor” for Japanese legend Kikutaro for a match. While he didn’t get nearly as involved as he did on Friday with MKE, he once again appeared at an indie match under a mask. Barstool Sports even reported that this could be the 3rd or 4th time he’s done such a masked run-in since he departed WWE.
By the way, this was CM Punk, too. No I'm not joking. Here's my story on the matter, as we posted earlier on Select. https://t.co/CHusDFY0Rx pic.twitter.com/aSZKvMHY1o
— Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com (@SeanRossSapp) April 21, 2019
But it also harkens back to a 2016 interview CM Punk did with on ESPN‘s Russilo & Kanell Show, where he was asked whether he’d ever make a return to pro wrestling. Talking to Pete Rosenberg, Punk said the following on whether he’d ever go back to the world of the squared circle.
“No, I don’t think so. But it is one of those ‘never say never’ things. I like to cover all my bases, just so some internet dweeb is going to be like, ‘you said you’d never wrestle again!’ But WWE? No. Absolutely not. But you never know, I could pop up here and there. Let me explain that to you even better: it’s not going to even be televised, it’s going to be me in a ninja fucking outfit wrestling one of my buddies and nobody’s ever going to know. It’s going to be very ‘Monty Python,’ so to speak.”
Well, it would appear that the ninja f**king outfit was back, at least for one night.
Stay tuned to the Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world.
