CM Punk – The Diary of The Deranged Writer

Notes to Self XXV

Last night, I was in a reflective mood while I was scrolling through my drafts. Then I found something worth filing under the Notes to Self category. It was a quote I would always bring up on my social media accounts and one of my old main blogs (which preceded The Diary), but I never really explained it personally. Since I’m still in a reflective mood tonight, I figured I should bring it up one more time and finally expound on it.

The quote? It’s a line CM Punk (who was slowly growing out of The Nexus and had entered his Best in the World era) said to Mr. McMahon during a contract negotiation on an episode of WWE Raw in 2011.

10-Minute Warning CXCVIII

All right. To quote Cody Rhodes, “What do you want to talk about?”

My Monday didn’t really go so well. I really woke up on the wrong side of the bed. I powered through work, but not without paying the price. My anxiety almost crippled me on that day, and my overthinking went into overdrive. That bad combination ended up with me having a headache later that night. I even carried that pain during my Monday ritual at Satchmi. I also had to stop replying to people for a while. If I were to message them, I’d rather be at my best… my 141 2/3 % best.

Then Tuesday came. I got the sleep that I needed, and my headache went away. But my muscles feel so sore and heavy, so I took it easy. It’s a good thing I had a minimal workload on that day. I also promised myself to wake up earlier for WWE Raw, but that’s all good because I can just watch it later. That’s the beauty of having WWE shows and PLEs on Netflix: I have the freedom to watch and pause them whenever I want.

And I’m so happy to see the main event of this week’s WWE Raw: CM Punk vs Finn Bálor for the World Heavyweight Championship. The Best in the World versus the first leader of Bullet Club (one of my favorite wrestling factions); two of my favorite wrestlers of the modern era fighting one another for the world title. I never thought I would see them battle at all, so seeing that main event was a treat, and both gave their all! Bálor may have ended up failing to win the title, but that’s all good.

I hope that at that point, Bálor starts breaking away from The Judgment Day. He deserves a great singles run and his own world title run. Plus, Punk successfully defended the title? Great decision. I want him to be champion for several more months (or a year?), then drop the title to someone deserving… like Bálor, if they were to make that match happen again.

Crap. I’m in fanboy mode, and my ten minutes are almost up. Oh well. See you in the next post.

Header image: WWE. Edited in Adobe Photoshop 2025. No copyright infringement intended.

Song of the Moment CVI: Saliva’s “I Walk Alone”

On New Year’s Day (2024), the first song I heard on Spotify was my favorite song of all time, “The Pretender “ by my favorite band, Foo Fighters. On New Year’s Day (2025), it was “Cult of Personality” by Living Colour, CM Punk’s WWE theme song, and one of my first Songs of the Moment.

But this year, 2026, I wanted to do something different. Because of the ridiculous barrage of fireworks outside, I started the year 2026 by opening the house’s smart TV and then searching on Spotify for Saliva’s “I Walk Alone”, the theme song of WWE wrestler-turned-actor Batista (real name David Bautista). Upon finding the song, I played it at full volume, jumped with my coins for good luck, and screamed along to the song’s first line:

YEEEEEEEEEEAH!!!

Side note: For context, please watch the video below. It’s Batista’s entrance at WrestleMania XXXIV featuring his theme song.

What a way for me to kick off the new year and cleanse the bad spirits. It was like I recreated Batista’s epic entrance at home. And that’s why it’s my first Song of the Moment for 2026.

Saliva’s “I Walk Alone”, from the WWE soundtrack compilation Wreckless Intent.

To all, have a fruitful, happy, and safe year ahead!

Header image: DreamSky of Pexels. Edited in Adobe Photoshop 2025.

Batista’s video: WWE. The featured video is for entertainment purposes only. No copyright infringement intended.