Remember when so many of us were begging CM Punk to talk? Now, in the post-Art of Wrestling / signing UFC world, a lot of the same folks are anxious for him to stop talking.
That's probably not going to happen any time soon, as even outside of a scripted, "sports entertainment" environment, the man who now alternately goes by his given name of Phil Brooks has the gift of gab. And more often than not, his take on whatever topic is thrown at him is at least a good conversation starter.
Friday, ESPN had another interview with the one-day (maybe) competitive mixed martial artist by their MMA blogger Brett Okamoto. In addition to talking about the other famous WWE and UFC employee, current WWE World Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar, Okamoto asked Punk if pro wrestling was a "sport":
That's a fascinating question. I think it varies.
Some days, I felt like, ‘Yeah, what we do makes us athletes.'
And then there were situations when I'd feel pretty silly about what I was doing - if you've got to dress up like Santa or you're getting beat up by Santa. You're watching part of the show, thinking it's a little suspect.'
Overall, pro wrestling is no joke, though. Everybody in it is an athlete to some degree. You'll find comparisons [to the physical needs] between the two.
Cardiovascular speaking, that was my shtick. I was never going to be the biggest or most chiseled, but nobody was ever going to make me tired in the ring. Endurance is something I definitely have. There are a lot of similarities in that aspect. It's go, go, go.
I think there is a friendly competition between the wrestlers to see who the best is. Who can blow the other one up cardiovascularly. That was always kind of fun.
In the Chicagoan's version, pro wrestlers are athletes who do compete with one another, but he's careful to never use the word "sport".
And I don't think you'd get many fans or critics who would argue with that. Even taking away talking as part of the thing, wrestlers/sports entertainers clearly have to prepare and put their bodies through things that a lay person couldn't or wouldn't.
But competition is present in all walks of life, and most of them wouldn't be called sports. I feel some level of competition every time a fellow staff member or fanposter really delivers a great piece here at Cageside Seats, but I wouldn't call blogging a sport.
The analogy for pro wrestling that I like to use comes from Chris Jericho, who compares it to figure skating or gymnastics as an athletic exhibition. But even that analogy requires a bit of a stretch to include the fans and/or the bookers as "judges". Without a formal scoring system of any kind, wrestling doesn't even adhere to that example of what pretty much everyone agrees is a competitve sport.
In the end, the scripted and pre-determined elements of pro graps will always keep it from being pure sport even as they provide dramatic advantages that "real sports" sometimes wish they had.
What do you think, Cagesiders? Both about Punk's take, and your own classification of pro wrestling in terms of the question of whether or not it's a "sport"?