Inside the Cage: CM Punk and Drew McIntyre’s Rivalry Comes to a Fiery Conclusion
“If you push me far enough, I can become the devil himself… and now the devil’s here.”
The words of Punk best epitomize the final installation of a rivalry that shouldn’t even exist.
From torn triceps, a bracelet, and hometown embarrassment, what has possibly been the feud of the year in the WWE has ended in one of the most feared structures in sports… Hell In A Cell.
But what made it so great?
What pulled us down under?
Punk and Mcintyre’s hatred for each other isn’t necessarily recent.
During the Scottish Warrior’s first stint with the company, he got to travel alongside Punk, there, Mcintyre got to see the symbol in living color.
“Back then I actually needed a leader, I was in a real dark place,” said Mcintyre before the royal rumble. “You used to refer to yourself as the leader, but you saw me as a threat,” said Mcintyre.
Mcintyre was out for revenge. He was tired of being pushed down the midcard, and believed it was unfair how punk upon his return pushed his way to the main event scene.
We weren’t dealing with the Scottish Warrior anymore, we were witnessing the Scottish Psychopath.
When punk addressed the crowd after his tricep injury, Mcintyre came out and told the Chicago native to his face “I prayed for this to happen and it did.”
Obviously, CM Punk wasn’t going to let this fly by, I mean this is the guy who when returning to AEW called out his inner company rivals — the Young Bucks— as “counterfeit bucks.”
Mcintyre would face Seth Rollins at Wrestlemania 40 for the World Heavyweight Championship. A slot originally meant for Punk.
And finally… Mcintyre won a championship in front of fans. And to soak in his moment Mcintyre would stand above Punk — who was a special guest commentator – and trash talk him to his face.
Then… all hell broke loose.
Who’s The Bad Guy?
“It’s appropriate that you compared yourself to the devil, because this has always been good versus evil, hasn’t it?” said Mcintyre.
CM Punk sweeping Mcintyre off his feet (literally), led to Damian Priest cashing in his money in the bank contract and stripping the title away from Mcintyre.
Mcintyre getting screwed over by Punk was by no means a one-time occasion.
The night after Wrestlemania 40, Mcintyre competed in a number one contenders match for a title in which he held just last night… for five minutes.
And surprise surprise, Punk screwed him again.
After Punk spoiled Mcintyre’s second chance, both men spent some time cutting slip-throat promos at each other while recovering from injuries, Mcintyre's being more minor than Punk’s.
Once Mcintyre came back, he had a clear road, one that was free from the Punkster.
The Scotsman would work his way up to the main event scene and claimed an opportunity to face Priest, the man who cashed in against him at Wrestlemania, for the title he coveted.
But there was something different about Mcintyre.
Instead of praying for everyone else’s downfall, he instead focused on what he could control. It seemed as though Mcintyre was going back to being the Scottish Warrior.
So in June of this year at Clash at the Castle, in Mcintyre’s home of Glasgow Scotland, the warrior was ready to claim the title that was rightly his in front of his people.
Mcintyre and Priest would fight tooth and nail, and once the warrior had the title in his grasp… CM Punk would appear as a replacement referee after the original ref would take a severe bump.
CM Punk hit Mcintyre with a low blow and once again cost him the title, in his home.
“Oh My God, the balls of CM Punk.” shrieked WWE announcer Michael Cole.
In defense of CM Punk, he warned Mcintyre a month earlier of how detrimental his words were.
“I am the unforgiving consequences to his actions. Drew, you prayed for this, and I broke your elbow. And if you show up now, I’m going to break your face. And then I’m going to break your heart.” said Punk on the May 6th, 2024, Monday Night Raw episode.
But Mcintyre didn’t care and reverted back to being the Psychopath.
At first, McIntyre tried to make Punk feel safe by proclaiming that he quit WWE.
But four days later, Mcintyre would pummel CM Punk down to the state of a bloody corpse. As he laid Punk’s lifeless body in front of his hometown of Chicago, and took the bracelet in which Punk wore with the name of his wife, and dog.
Consequences are the rhetoric in which this feud is built.
Mcintyre would be reminded of it when he tried to cash in his money in the bank contract on the same night that he won it, only to lose thanks to Punk delivering chair shots to Mcintyre’s back and smacking the Scotsman with the title to his face.
Both of these men have blurred the lines between good and evil. There’s no one man in which you can stand behind as being “good.”
Sorry Mcintyre, but your metaphor makes no sense, especially when considering how you destroyed Punk’s bracelet and shoved the beads down his mouth.
Final Destination: The 20 ft chain link cage
These two men faced each other twice before.
First at Summerslam, in a normal match refereed by the “visionary” Seth Rollins. A match won by Mcintyre.
Second, at the Bash in Berlin. But that was no ordinary bout, it was a strap match. One ultimately won by Punk.
There was no better place to hold the “rubber match” between these two personalities than hell.
Because on Oct. 5, the wrestling world was shown how true hatred is settled.
Since it’s Halloween season, it’s safe to say this Hell in a Cell match belongs more in a Saw movie than a WWE Premium Live Event.
Drew Mcintyre entered the match with an 0-2 record in his previous hell-in-a-cell match, while CM Punk hadn’t competed inside the Devil’s Playhouse in eleven years.
Mcintyre controlled the start of the match. When throwing Punk face first into the metal cage, first blood was drawn, pouring down the Punkester’s face.
CM Punk would regain control, striking Mcintyre's forehead with a toolbox. The results left McIntyre pouring as much blood as a ghost face victim.
It seemed as though both barbarians had a favorite weapon that Saturday night, a wrench. As punk would pound away at McIntyre’s head with the top of the tool.
But with a thick crimson mask, Mcintyre would grab Punk and send him through a table from the top rope. When pulling him back into the ring Mcintyre would open a bag filled with the separate beads from Punk’s fan-made bracelet, and pour them over his enemy.
Finally, when wanting to end the rubber match, McIntyre would line up and go for his finisher, the Claymore Kick. But just in time, Punk dodged the move sending the Psychopath back first into a 250-pound steel step.
When Mcintyre was on the ground, Punk wrapped a chain around his knee, grabbed Mcintyre, and delivered a Go To Sleep, with Mcintyre meeting the chain face first.
There was no coming back for Mcintyre, as CM Punk achieved the one, two, three.
The impact of the feud.
If there’s a word that best summarizes WWE’s 2024, it’s flow.
Frankly the Punk-Mcintyre rivalry was one that shouldn’t even exist. Yet, a tricep injury gave fans a feud that changed the game for wrestling.
Both men succeeded in blurring the lines between kayfabe and reality. Not only were families mentioned, cuss words dropped consistently, and X used more as a tool, but the brutality of a wrestling rivalry was rejuvenated without feeling forced.
The story of two men hating each other was portrayed as if it were in the attitude era but with more depth. The layers of storytelling and symbols such as the bracelet all built a foundation for the type of storytelling that we can expect from the Triple H era.
Now let’s just see if this type of in-depth storytelling lives up to the company's moniker of “then, now, forever.”