CM Punk’s moonsault at SummerSlam has been getting roasted online for days. Jeff Jarrett thinks a lot of people owe Punk an apology. What plenty of fans wrote off as a botch, Jarrett says, wasn’t a mistake at all. It was exactly what Punk was trying to do—a tribute to the late Terry Funk that many viewers simply didn’t recognize.
Speaking on My World, Jarrett took aim at the growing habit of wrestling fans calling anything that doesn’t look picture-perfect a “botch,” using Punk’s SummerSlam moonsault as the perfect example.
“The term botch… I saw the moonsault and that’s where, God bless wrestling fans… you know how, Conrad, we say we just want to believe? I think there are certain wrestling fans—and I’m here for it, keep watching, keep criticizing, keep commenting—but I think there’s a section of fans that want to believe they know what they’re talking about, and they would never ever believe, ‘Oh, Punk’s moonsault, that’s exactly how he wanted to do it.’ It was a Funk moonsault. It was his version.”
Jarrett argued that people were judging Punk’s moonsault against today’s high-flying standards when that was never the goal in the first place. In fact, he believes a perfect moonsault would’ve completely defeated the purpose of paying tribute to Terry Funk.
“If Punk hit this textbook gymnastic moonsault… if he hit a Komander moonsault, nobody expects that. Nobody wants that.”
From there, the conversation got bigger than just one move. Jarrett said fans have become conditioned to expect wrestling to look perfectly choreographed from start to finish, and the moment something looks rough or unconventional, many immediately scream “botch” without considering that it might have been intentional.
“I’m glad you said ‘botch’ because I hate that term too… If you slip on the rope, if you truly botch…”
To make his point, Jarrett recalled working with the late King Cobra, who would intentionally make certain exchanges look awkward because that’s how real fights often unfold.
“King Cobra Fergie… used to do a spot where he’d tell me, ‘Hey man, you go for the lock-up, I’m gonna go for the top wrist lock. It’s gonna feel disjointed. That’s how I want it.’… It looked kind of funky… That’s what I’m saying. Some people want to believe so bad that you have to have everything perfect and seamless in a dance contest and a true ballet performance. And if everything isn’t flawless, that means it’s a sloppy match. That is so far from reality. But hey man, wrestling fans are gonna b*** about what they want to b**** about.”
Punk himself already revealed the truth behind the moonsault, explaining after SummerSlam that the awkward landing was a deliberate nod to Terry Funk rather than a failed attempt at a traditional moonsault. Jarrett’s comments only reinforced that explanation, arguing that the criticism says more about modern fan expectations than Punk’s execution.
Whether fans loved the tribute or hated how it looked, one thing is clear: a move that lasted only a few seconds has led to one of the biggest debates coming out of SummerSlam weekend.
Do you agree with Jeff Jarrett that CM Punk’s moonsault was misunderstood, or do you think fans were right to criticize how it looked? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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