WWE: Why CM Punk Is the New People's Champion in Professional Wrestling

CM Punk doesn't have the "golden boy" look. He isn't chiseled from granite or look like the second coming of Lex Luger. He hasn't been in movies and he looks more like the leader of a biker gang than the lead face of the WWE.

But with all the accolades we bestow upon Punk in light of his rise in the ranks of the WWE hierarchy, maybe we have been too quick to assert him to the title of "anti-hero" and maybe we should praise him for being this generation's "people's champion."

This is not an article to disrespect anything The Rock has done in his wrestling career. He is still one of the best ever to come to the WWE and show the world he is the best at what he does. But times have changed, people's perception has become more skewed and of course those who loved The Rock as a child may not hold him in the same regard because others have come and stolen the show.

CM Punk is one of them.

The WWE still needs the likes of the Stone Colds and The Rocks and The Undertakers of the past generation to transition to the new era of wrestling, a filthy rich environment of "bend it, but don't piss it off" genres that cross the line from time to time in the mantras of wrestling past.

But CM Punk is the "people's choice" when it comes to the popular pick of whom they want to support, in good times and bad.

Sorry, John Cena, you have been replaced.

Actually, the choice of Punk makes sense. There have been others in wrestling who have walked this same path and garnered the same successes in one way or another.

Maybe the best examples lie in two wrestlers who look the part, act the part and lived the part in undefined terms.

Dusty Rhodes was the "lead" face of the NWA for decades and was the face that was the common good against the likes of Ric Flair and the Four Horsemen. He was a former world title holder and was loved my millions, and when he talked to a microphone, he was like Tebow. Everyone wanted to know what he was saying.

Randy Savage was a multiple world champion in the WWF and WCW and he walked that path as a popular anti-hero who fought the good fight, had a hot wife and was loved for his voice, his ability and his flamboyance.

And in this era, both could still walk the walk while being able to talk the talk.

Punk's growth in the last year with this company is testament enough to his role as the "lead dog" of this wrestling generation. Long gone are drop toe holds, armbars and tag team champions. What is replaced is high-flying antics, over the top characters and, of course, more Vickie Guerrero.

And through it all, Punk continues to champion his own cause, much like he is championing the flagship banner of the company he works for.