"CM Punk - Best in the World" Review

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Almost exactly two years ago, CM Punk demanded for his own movie made by WWE Studios and ice cream bars with his face on them. Well, at least we ended up getting one of those two things. Production for the movie began in early 2012 before being released on DVD that October. It was such a huge happening that it even aired in a local movie theater in Chicago, where Punk and many of his close friends and family were in attendance.

As one would expect, the documentary received rave reviews. I saw them all over wrestling news websites, YouTube and many other platforms. I had to avoid them at all costs. Someone even sent me a link to watch the documentary portion of the DVD in full for free, but I turned down the offer. I wanted to wait until I bought the DVD for myself. Most people went out and bought it as soon as it was released, but I decided to save my money and put it on my Christmas list instead. Obviously, waiting two months for an awesome DVD is a long time, but it build my anticipation.

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At last, Christmas had finally arrived and I did end up getting the "CM Punk - Best in the World" DVD as a gift. Many people questioned why I didn't watch it right away, but I was too busy with other gifts that I had no time to watch the movie. Four days had passed when I finally planned a movie for myself on Saturday, December 29th. I grabbed some snacks, candy and a beverage and popped in the disc. The 3-disc set is worth watching for the menu alone, which featured brief clips of Punk's WWE career while "Cult of Personality" by Living Colour blares in the background.

The documentary itself was absolutely amazing. If you have yet to see the DVD and don't want to spoiled, I would suggest to stop reading now. I had no idea that Punk had as rough of a childhood as I did. I wasn't even aware of the fact that he actually moved away from his own parents and moved in with people who cared for him. I found it outrageously cool that he had his own backyard wrestling organization, something I've always dreamed of doing. The documentary also took viewers behind-the-scenes of Punk's everyday life. He explained his time on the indies and in Ring of Honor, which was pleasantly surprising. Kudos to WWE for actually featuring footage of Punk's time with ROH.

Everyone that was interviewed for the DVD, including Paul Heyman, John Cena, The Miz and others, all spoke very highly of The Voice of the Voiceless. Of course, there were some parts of Punk's career (his feuds with Rey Mysterio and Randy Orton, his time with the New Nexus, etc.) that were left off his documentary, but it was probably for the better. The things that were excluded weren't all that important anyway and would have dragged on had they been featured.

As noted before, there were a number of things I learned about CM Punk that I didn't know before watching his DVD. It was close to two hours long, but time absolutely flew by. They talked about everything from his early beginnings to his match with John Cena at Money in the Bank 2011 (my favorite match of all time). The other two discs feature some of The Straightedge Superstar's best matches, which they did an excellent job of picking out. These bouts include Punk vs. Morrison for the ECW Championship in September 2007, Punk vs. Hardy for the World Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam 2009, Punk vs. Chris Jericho for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 28 and much more.

Needless to say, this DVD is a must-buy and definitely one of the best collections WWE has produced to date. The documentary was fascinating and the matches are all entertaining as well. If you're on the verge of buying this DVD (who would be?), I strongly suggest doing so.

Should you see this movie? Yes.