I normally save my annual wrestling column for a little later into ‘WrestleMania season’, but since there’s a decent chance that the most impressive WWE Title reign of the past 25 years is coming to an end this Sunday at the Royal Rumble, the time is right to post a review about the reigning champion’s DVD.

‘C.M. Punk: Best in the World’ covers the rise of the signature star of this generation’s WWE.  At one point called the last territorial star, the ‘Chicago Made Punk’ (only one of several clever names) rose from a less than ideal childhood to find his place in the world through the music/culture he loved and a way of life (Straight Edge) that would become his code.  As we all learned on The Wire, “A man must have a code.” (Punk’s appreciation for my favorite show isn’t part of the doc, just a tidbit I picked up along the way).

His identity/character is a big part of what connects with the audience, but the Best in the World earned his stripes, make no mistake.  The documentary does a great job of showing the development of C.M. Punk: learning his craft in the early years with fellow Chicago native Colt Cabana, his epic battles in Ring of Honor with Samoa Joe, up to where we are now, climbing to the top of the WWE mountain.

The documentary section ends with the feud that pushed Punk into the stratosphere: his (first) WWE title feud with the Golden Boy, John Cena.  The original ‘pipebomb’ promo is one of the best WWE promos of all time, their payoff match at Money in the Bank in Chicago was debatably the last ‘instant classic’ match in pro wrestling.  Both are worth ‘the price of admission’ alone if you weren’t watching when it happened. Hell, they’re both all time great, they’re still worth checking out, now with some hindsight.

The documentary section of the DVD is streaming on Netflic; it’s a must see for any wrestling fan.