Team Bryan or Team Punk

Who gives a rat's ass about Cena and Rock or Triple H vs Undertaker. THIS is the showdown of the year!

But which Best In The World's side are you on? the guy who earned the moniker all those years ago or the one carrying the namesake now, even emblazoned on the back of his t-shirt?

One of my first forays into indie wrestling proper was ROH Reborn Night One which had these two square off eachother and I sensed greatness. 8 years later, they're gonna face eachother for the richest prize in wrestling for the last 50 years. I have seen them encounter eachother numerous times since and they have never failed to entertain me. Both guys are reaching their prime now, having honed their skills and managed to stay away from dehabilitating injuries or the pitfalls of steroids, drugs and alcohol as so many wrestlers poised for greatness has.

So is it Team Punk?

http://vimeo.com/28976003 <--- Summer of Punk 2005

Or is it Team Bryan?

Team Bryan, every time.

Bryan all the way. Punk is starting to get boring for me. Its no fault of his own, I just fine that faces get stale a lot faster than heels.

Bryan is amazing . I'm on team YES !

Mah boy, the YES! man, Daniel Bryan. I love Punk, but DB is the most entertaining thing since the lead up to Cena/Punk at MTIB.

I'm hoping they actually give them time to work and not just give us a 15 minute match. Also I have a feeling that the Cena/Johnny match will be getting the majority of the build time on Raw.

Imagine if this turned into a proper feud with a series of matches. They never really did get into a proper program in ROH.

Punk had Samoa Joe as his main nemesis and Daniel Bryan had Nigel McGuiness as his.

Summerslam or Survivor Series... IRON MAN MATCH!

Summerslam or Survivor Series... IRON MAN MATCH!

@TeflonBilly said:

Imagine if this turned into a proper feud with a series of matches. They never really did get into a proper program in ROH.

Punk had Samoa Joe as his main nemesis and Daniel Bryan had Nigel McGuiness as his.

Summerslam or Survivor Series... IRON MAN MATCH!

I'll be honest I'm ignorant to punk's early career. But matches against Samoa Joe sound fantastic. Is he still with that trainwreck that is TNA?

Bryan, he's fantastic

Imagine if this turned into a proper feud with a series of matches. They never really did get into a proper program in ROH.

Punk had Samoa Joe as his main nemesis and Daniel Bryan had Nigel McGuiness as his.

Summerslam or Survivor Series... IRON MAN MATCH!

YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES.

Seriously, I like Punk a lot, but I've enjoyed Bryan's matches and promos more as of late.

YES.

I love Punk, but I really think he's become a bit stale since becoming champion. He's much better when he's in his anti-establishment underdog mode.

So I guess what I'm saying is Si! Si! Si! Si! Si! Si! Si!

Team Bryan for me. The dude single handedly made me fall in love with wrestling again.

'Team Bryan' sounds stupid but not a good kind of stupid and 'Team Punk' sounds just as stupid but in a cliche, teen angst sort of way. Can I choose neither?

I'm not even a fan of wrestling, but I sometimes watch it, the ONLY reason I watch is because of CM Punk, he's incredibly entertaining when he's talking.

I really like both of these guys, but I have to say Punk.

YES!
YES!
YES!
YES!
YES!
YES!

I have middle ground hopes for these two, they had a pretty fun match but if they go the respect route, I'm gonna puke. They spent the last few months establish an identity for these two hopefully Bryan stays an insufferable prick... also these two dont have the best of matches against each other, at least in their indy days compared totheir matches with other big names.

It's Clobberin Time

Where is your Dragon now

we all win.

Not even a question for me. I love CM Punk, but what Bryan has been doing recently is absolutely astounding.

TEAM YES! YES! YES!

Bryan all the way.

Punk is a fine wrestler but he slips into smug HHH mode far too much for me to like him.

Even if most of you here are calling Punk a bit stale (which I can see) I still have to go for my boy CM Punk.

Either way, it should be a cracking bit of wrestling.

@Demoskinos said:

I'll be honest I'm ignorant to punk's early career. But matches against Samoa Joe sound fantastic. Is he still with that trainwreck that is TNA?

The CM Punk vs Samoa Joe trilogy is one of the most celebrated feuds in the history of ROH. I highly recommend getting your mitts in it.

The guy is so talented that it was inevitable to happen, but that feud arguable MADE Punk.

@JasonR86 said:

'Team Bryan' sounds stupid but not a good kind of stupid and 'Team Punk' sounds just as stupid but in a cliche, teen angst sort of way. Can I choose neither?

I considered Team Dragon, but the only one who's really alluded to that moniker since he started in the WWE is Matt Striker and Jill Thompson, the girl who designs all his ring gear.

The Chris Jericho feud went too long, and should have stopped after mania. I believe it really hurt punks momentum, while Bryan has been red hot.

I love both men's work, and honestly neither need a title belt at this point.

Lol

Wrestling

@SuperSambo: Throwing stones in glass houses when you have a frickin' soccer player as your avatar. At least wrestling make no pretense about it being a show when they act hurt unlike pussy soccer players who act like they're hit by a bullet when a gust of wind from an opposing player grazing them flies by.

@TeflonBilly said:

@SuperSambo: Throwing stones in glass houses when you have a frickin' soccer player as your avatar. At least wrestling make no pretense about it being a show when they act hurt unlike pussy soccer players who act like they're hit by a bullet when a gust of wind from an opposing player grazing them flies by.

Soccer is a sport, wrestling is a sitcom worse than Two and a Half Men.

Spanish football is rife with diving, which is why I don't watch it. In England it is getting a lot better, but still not acceptable.

And I prefer Rugby, but the moment when Henry scored against Leeds was the best sporting moment (barring the 2003 World Cup win) I have witnessed.

Wrestling is an athletic performance art rife with elements of soap opera. Calling it a sit-com on par with Two And Half Men is an ignorant slap in the face of the performers who work and train hard every day to perform the moves and make the drama associated with it. Tell me, do you have an equally low opinion of great ballet dancers or great actors as you have of world class wrestlers like Daniel Bryan and CM Punk?

Soccer has turned into a menagerie of overpriced primadonnas, seldom playing to their full potential and giving it all and making a mockery of the sport it should be while drowning in the sea of corruption and lack of integrity permeating most of it's associations. I have lost so much respect for it as a sporting event since I was a fan as a little kid.

Not liking wrestling is your perogative and totally understandable, but coming specifically into a thread about it to utter "Lol wrestling" smacks of the mantra of the willfully ignorant. Next time somebody discusses a great movie or a great choregropahy display, don't forget to post "Lol talking" or "Lol dancing" to accentuate the complete lack of critical thinking you have shown here.

Ugh, Daniel Bryan is a better wrestler, Punk is better on the stick but Bryan has worked really hard in that department over the last few months. It might be Daniel Bryan overall.

@TeflonBilly said:

Wrestling is an athletic performance art rife with elements of soap opera. Calling it a sit-com on par with Two And Half Men is an ignorant slap in the face of the performers who work and train hard every day to perform the moves and make the drama associated with it. Tell me, do you have an equally low opinion of great ballet dancers or great actors as you have of world class wrestlers like Daniel Bryan and CM Punk?

Soccer has turned into a menagerie of overpriced primadonnas, seldom playing to their full potential and giving it all and making a mockery of the sport it should be while drowning in the sea of corruption and lack of integrity permeating most of it's associations. I have lost so much respect for it as a sporting event since I was a fan as a little kid.

Not liking wrestling is your perogative and totally understandable, but coming specifically into a thread about it to utter "Lol wrestling" smacks of the mantra of the willfully ignorant. Next time somebody discusses a great movie or a great choregropahy display, don't forget to post "Lol talking" or "Lol dancing" to accentuate the complete lack of critical thinking you have shown here.

Wrestling today is not what it was 10 years ago. 10 years ago it is not what it was 5 years before that.

Comparing great ballet to great wrestling is crazy.

I repeat. Lol Wrestling.

@SuperSambo said:

Comparing great ballet to great wrestling is crazy.

So great wrestling which would include amazing control of your body and interplay with another performer (I.e. doing moves believably and viscerally while not actually injuring your partner) while telling a story and making onlookers suspend their disbelief into not scoffing at the knowledge you already have that it is scripted and predetermined is not on par with a great ballet display?

Educate yourself http://www.tcnj.edu/~miranda/classes/theory_practice/barthes_wrestling.html

I love watching towering brutes toss eachother around and fight in the pastiche of gladitorial combat that wrestling is supposed to display.

I also like wrestling because I like postmodernism, semiotics and continental philosophy. People like Jean Baudrillard posited that the world has been effectively replaced by a an almost identical replica of itself, which is full of simulated experiences and objects. This is exemplified in modern consumerism, where we are convinced into buying objects because of the values they 'contain', as promoted by advertising.

I like wrestling because it is the ultimate authentic fake: it is presented as being serious and real, but the characters and storylines are simply a painting that has been drawn over the surface of reality.

If you're not gonna accept it as a sport (Which I personally don't, but then again I don't do that with at least 50% of soccer, if not more) then I suggest trying to accept it as a form of art. Or not. That's your choice.

I just don't seem to feel the need to denigrate it when I personally feel that whatever passion you show towards soccer with your avatar is laughable when you look at what a sham whole swaths of the sport has become. I just don't feel a need to butt in and espew an unsolicited and borderline ignorant opinion about it in treads about it.

how do you people watch WWE now that it's PG-13? It's ass.

@TeflonBilly said:

@SuperSambo said:

Comparing great ballet to great wrestling is crazy.

So great wrestling which would include amazing control of your body and interplay with another performer (I.e. doing moves believably and viscerally while not actually injuring your partner) while telling a story and making onlookers suspend their disbelief into not scoffing at the knowledge you already have that it is scripted and predetermined is not on par with a great ballet display?

Educate yourself http://www.tcnj.edu/~miranda/classes/theory_practice/barthes_wrestling.html

I love watching towering brutes toss eachother around and fight in the pastiche of gladitorial combat that wrestling is supposed to display.

I also like wrestling because I like postmodernism, semiotics and continental philosophy. People like Jean Baudrillard posited that the world has been effectively replaced by a an almost identical replica of itself, which is full of simulated experiences and objects. This is exemplified in modern consumerism, where we are convinced into buying objects because of the values they 'contain', as promoted by advertising.

I like wrestling because it is the ultimate authentic fake: it is presented as being serious and real, but the characters and storylines are simply a painting that has been drawn over the surface of reality.

If you're not gonna accept it as a sport (Which I personally don't, but then again I don't do that with at least 50% of soccer, if not more) then I suggest trying to accept it as a form of art. Or not. That's your choice.

I just don't seem to feel the need to denigrate it when I personally feel that whatever passion you show towards soccer with your avatar is laughable when you look at what a sham whole swaths of the sport has become. I just don't feel a need to butt in and espew an unsolicited and borderline ignorant opinion about it in treads about it.

You seem to enjoy it for all of the reasons that I find laughable, so...

Lol

Wrestling

@CL60 said:

@SuperSambo you sound like an ass.

I look disturbing like one too.

@Sooty said:

how do you people watch WWE now that it's PG-13? It's ass.

Cause they have the best roster at the moment that they've ever had. CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Chris Jericho, Dolph Ziggler, Christian, Alberto Del Rio and Cody Rhodes are just amazing at both working the mic and performing in-ring without having to resort to excessive blood or swearing. I admit to missing vestiges of the Attitude era, but they've managed to find some great ways to work around the PG-13 restrictions. Plus they've gotten a lot more lax about it over the last year (Which I attribute to Linda McMahon not running for political office anymore which was the impetus to clamping fown on the rating). Plus they have so much up and coming talent that are getting groomed on the C-shows or in their developmental systema like Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, Antonio Cesaro and Kassius Ohno. People who have more than proved themselves in the indie circuit and worked their way up to the big times.

Plus, it's not like WWE is the only game in town. Aforementioned indie promotions like Chikara, ROH and PWG are shining examples that you don't have to look far outside to see amazing talent like Kevin Steen, Davey Richards, Eddie Kingston or Michael Elgin. And those promotions run the gamut from being rated G to R/MA.

Even TNA has a golden nugget or two in their sea of shit in the likes of Austin Aries, Alex Shelley and Bobby Roode.

Wrestling has always been cyclical and it may not be in the limelight of the main stream at the moment, the amount of entertaining talent plying their craft at the moment is staggering.

@Sooty said:

how do you people watch WWE now that it's PG-13? It's ass.

They're starting to somewhat bleed the line a little bit from the past couple of years of the "PG Era" and getting back to what it used to be. Bleeding seems to be ok now, but they aren't allowed to blade themselves just yet (See John Cena at the last PPV). Also, they're starting to let wrestlers moderately curse again.

The main separation from attitude era to PG era that's still heavily enforced is the lack of chair shots to the head, which is something that I'm ok with in order to protect people's brain.

I don't think that WWE sucked for the past few years because it was PG, it sucked because the writing and booking was god-awful. Ever since CM Punk took over the main event scene, I've been watching and I've been heavily satisfied overall with not only WWE, but every wrestling company still going (except TNA).

@TurboMan: I'm pretty sure Brock bladed after the chainshot in that match. Cena bled hardway though with those brutal elbow strikes by Brock.

Team Byran!

@TeflonBilly: now that you pointed that out... yeah, Brock totally bladed in that same match.

Yes! Yes! Yes! YEEEEESSSS!

@SuperSambo: Guess I'm just gonna have to pull out the Sandow then

I don't follow wrestling (never have really) but I have to say I found the video linked in the OP about CM Punk highly entertaining.

Hehe. "Team Punk". That's funny...

YES! YES! YES!

@Sooty: It really hasn't effected the quality of the product as much as Vince McMahon, creative or development has. And those things exist regardless of a PG13 environment.

@TeflonBilly: You have probably heard this advice before, but there is no use in arguing with someone about the validity of wrestling on an internet message board. Nothing will be gained and more than likely you will come out having spent way too much time and energy trying to convince someone of something they aren't even willing to consider.

The More You Know ™

As for the poll, Team Bryan all the way. He has been one of my favorite pro wrestlers for the past 12 years and it is thrilling to see him and Punk come this far. I just hope they are given ample time on Raw to build for the match and maybe 25-30 minutes for the match. Even better if this leads to an extended feud between them.

The first wrestling show I ever went to was a tiny show with a bunch of no name British wrestlers... and Daniel Bryan. I'd seen him on the internet a lot but had no idea he was at this show. I flipped out. Team Bryan all the way.

Also, Rene Dupree and Gangrel were there. That was pretty cool.