Hanging an "L" on Excellence
CM Punk's journey to UFC Fighter is complete. At UFC 203, he made the walk. He stepped in the cage. To borrow a memorable Arn Anderson promo, he said what he was going to do and then he did it. In many eyes, that was a win. The cynical might ask, "A win for who?". It is a fair question. Victory, after all, is in the eyes of the beholder. Punk surely won. The world can debate his level of self-awareness, but most agree on this: he lives to prove people wrong. 'Fake' wrestlers don't step in the Octagon, and he did. For others, victory is less clear. Wrestlers, fighters, fans, announcers; they hold opinions across a broad spectrum. Some love the effort, some hate the spectacle and many carry ambivalence on those very topics. "What harm was done?" is a common refrain from supporters of this and other spectacles. The injured party can be summed up in a single word: excellence. That concept, which drives so many admirable parts of Western civiliza