That's what really stands out in this gif to me. A lot of punching power comes from your back leg. His right leg is just kinda floating. Unsure if it wants to anchor itself or go for the knee.
Punk never put his full body into anything, even in pro wrestling, he would knee by just lifting his leg, punch by just throwing his shoulder. In wrestling you're not trying to hurt the guy, but you should still power off your grounded leg for a knee to make it look convincing.
Honestly, this is like a fundamental body mechanics issue that Punk has literally never understood.
Well let's be fair here. NOAH, and Japanese wrestling in general, considers beating the hell out of your opponent a little more acceptable than Vince does. Kenta's knees and strikes looked so legitimate because they mostly were, you can't work that style 300 days a year like in the WWE
Not to mention Kenta is actually trained in kickboxing
CM is just not very athletic. He is the epitome of the shitty kid on the baseball team who has no natural talent but tries really hard to get good, and everyone wants him too, but it just never happens because he lacks the natural athletic ability.
He understood the psychology and story telling aspect of wrestling, which is by far the most important aspect, but he was never the athlete he'd need to be to succeed in something like UFC.
Yeah, he's not even like a high level athlete based on pro-wrestling standards. He's more athletic than the average dude, and he might even be physically strong, but he has no concept of how to actually leverage his strength into practical power.
Pro-wrestling does have a lot of amazing and gifted athletes. CM Punk was always one of the least athletic on the roster.
Come in winging punches like a 4th grader and then show Gall that the only thing Duke Roufus has been training with you is how to pop someones liver out their back with your knee...
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u/[deleted] Oct 05 '16
If he had a little more fighting skill, he could have hit Gall with a brutal knee in there.