Corey Graves is One Hundred Percent Correct In Regards to CM Punk
By Bryan Heaton
After CM Punk took a brutal loss at UFC 225, Corey Graves surprised many with a series of tweets about the former WWE superstar.
In the opening fight of the main card of UFC 225, CM Punk struggled to do much of anything, and lost to Mike Jackson via unanimous decision. It’s likely the end of his UFC career, as Dana White implied following the card. Of course, that will lead to speculation from wrestling fans that Punk will eventually return to WWE, or at least professional wrestling in some fashion.
But as far as WWE is concerned, a series of tweets from Corey Graves basically shut the door on any kind of reunion with CM Punk, at least in the near future. The full story of Graves’s tweets, plus his explanation, are over at Fightful, so go check out the whole thing.
On social media, many fans are coming down hard on Graves. Some see it as a veiled attempt at WWE trying to get “revenge” after Punk’s victory in court earlier this week. Others think Graves is needlessly shoehorning himself into a situation that doesn’t concern him. And a few just want to make jokes about Corey’s “punk rock” statement.
But the truth of the matter is this: Corey Graves is right.
Look, I’m not personal friends with Corey Graves or CM Punk. And I’ll freely admit that when he was wrestling in NXT, I used to call Graves “Wal-Mart CM Punk,” because he looked like the Asylum stepped away from making parodies of summer blockbusters and attempted a wrestler parody. However, given the publicly available facts of the case, it’s hard to find fault with what Graves said.
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I’d be willing to venture a guess that we’ve all had a friend from work that left the company/store/whatever for one reason or another. I’ve had friends from places who were “let go,” whether budgetary or something else, who I still talk to. If a friendship is strong, place of employment shouldn’t dictate whether the friendship continues. Supposing Graves is truthful, and accepting CM Punk’s notorious acerbic personality as fact, there’s no wonder Corey is upset. To be told “unless you quit your job I won’t be your friend anymore” is absurd.
Of course, being fired one your wedding day is going to leave a sour taste in your mouth. There’s plenty of reasons to find sympathy — to an extent — with Punk. But his beef is with the medical staff, Vince McMahon, and the company executives. Corey Graves didn’t send Punk out to compete while concussed and with possible staph. It’s kind of hard to stay silent when, in Graves’s own words, a friend “[turns] off people that actually loved and supported him.”
Next: Wrestling Fans Glued to CM Punk at UFC 225
You can think what you want about CM Punk. His accomplishments in wrestling are indisputable, but he is also a curmudgeon to those outside his circle. And Corey Graves is entitled to his opinion about a man he considers a friend. Given the evidence, I’d say Graves is in the right here.