Home ▸ Other ▸ RAW 02/07/11: Line of the Night

Howdy y’all! This is not a recap nor a review of the entire episode of RAW. I’ll let someone else do that. Rather, it’s an observance of a very subtle reference in the episode by CM Punk in the opening segment that was so excellent, I felt the need to make a note of it.

After Vince McMahon had entered, made a teaser statement about next week, and left… Randy Orton entered the squared circle and called out CM Punk. Orton is pissed off that Punk cost him his chance at the title, you see. CM Punk comes out to address this issue and in a rather entertaining scene regales us with a reference to Unforgiven 2008 where a backstage beat down by Orton and Legacy forced Punk to relinquish his title at said PPV. This segment ends in a similar beat down on Orton (in which Orton breaks Punks nose) and the New Nexus takes out Orton.

Just prior this attack though, Punk makes a reference with a sly smile….

“I haven’t forgotten that night, in fact I remember it like it was yesterday… and I have waited this long, to get my revenge. I am a patient boy… I wait… I wait… I wait… I wait”

This is a direct quote from Fugazi’s “The Waiting Room”

This quote certainly worked well in the context of the promo. Indeed. But there is MUCH more to this than meets the eye. Some of you might remember that on at least two occasions I have referenced this song in my crappy wrestling reviews. But that is not the reason.

The band Fugazi is a band formed by a number of musicians, one being the legendary punk rock vocalist Ian MacKaye. Perhaps you recognize that name, and perhaps you don’t. However, Mr. MacKaye was a founding member of another legendary band by the name of Minor Threat. Minor Threat might not be as well known as the Sex Pistols or the Ramones, or perhaps Bad Religion or Black Flag. However, just like Operation Ivy influenced the birth of ska punk, Minor Threat certainly influenced many early punk bands and deserve much esteem and respect for anyone out there who enjoys anything called Punk. You do not NEED to have a mohawk to live a philosophical ideology similar to that which is punk. But before I start getting all preachy…

“Well G,” you might say, “That is all fine and dandy. What in tarnation are you getting at?”

While a member of Minor Threat, the band wrote a song called “Straight Edge.”

In fact: “Along with his seminal band Minor Threat, he is credited with coining the term “straight edge” to describe an ideology that eschews drug and alcohol abuse, though MacKaye has stated many times that he did not intend to turn it into a movement.”

I assure you, whether or not the WWE realized it (or the writers themselves, and I bet they didn’t), CM Punk just made the most accurate and clever statement I have ever heard him say tonight on RAW. This was no coincidence, I assure you.

While I am not the exemplar of the Straight Edge movement, nor make no claims to be Straight Edge (I like my beer), CM Punk has built a significant character trait around this sub-culture. By referencing the Waiting Room, he made a subversive reference that you now understand, or so I hope. What a cool moment in wrestling.

And that my friends, is why that was the line of the night.

My hat’s off to you.

Like this post? Subscribe to our RSS Feed today and never miss another!