The final push to Punk vs. MJF starts with a hug, ends in blood

Maxwell Jacob Friedman got the wrestling world buzzing with his soul-baring promo last week. This week, just days before his Dog Collar match with CM Punk at Revolution, Punk got a chance to respond.

The Best in the World said he couldn’t shake the feeling he was being gaslit, but he also didn’t think it mattered. He knows that hurt people — like MJF was hurt by his walking away from wrestling for seven years — hurt people.

And he knows that he’s trying to not be the bad guy any more, so he called Friedman to the ring to offer him the handshake he’d denied the younger man weeks ago.

His gesture seemed to really touch Max, who came in from a hug instead of a shake.

It was an effective, unorthodox way to sell a blood feud. Or it would have been, if not for the inevitable swerve.

MJF kicked Punk in the family jewels, and the rest of the Pinnacle showed up to give him the tools he needed to really take his hero-turned-rival apart. By the time Sting, Darby Allin & Sammy Guevara got around FTR to make the save, Punk had been busted open with the Dynamite Diamond Ring, and hung up over the ropes with the collar and chain he and Friedman will be wearing at Revolution.

The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist. Punk knew he existed, but tried to do the right thing anyway. Then he paid for it. Will he make MJF pay on Sunday?

Get complete results and coverage of everything that happened on tonight’s Dynamite‘s here.