Whom did CM Punk pay homage to with his in-ring gear at WWE SummerSlam?

In the main event of SummerSlam, CM Punk defeated Gunther in an old-school throwback classic: gritty, brutal, and an emotional rollercoaster. What followed, though, was the Heist of Century 2.0. That's right, folks! Seth Rollins came out on crutches, seemingly to make a statement and establish that he is looming over Punk as champion, but rumors turned to reality soon thereafter.

Seth Rollins' seemingly legitimate knee injury he suffered last month turned out to be a glorious worked shoot; it was revealed to be a ruse, and Rollins, following the reveal, swiftly cashed in on a broken-down CM Punk to win the World Heavyweight Championship again. The fallout and analysis from all of this will be doing the rounds all over the weekend, but in this article, we explore something in an entirely different field of enquiry: CM Punk's in-ring gear.

Punk's gear, bright white and sky blue, was brand new, and it evidently paid homage to Marvel's Fantastic Four, with the new MCU movie, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, having released just days ago. The resemblance between the uniform of the superhero team in the movie and Punk's ring gear was unmistakable.

CM Punk is known to be an avid comic book fan, but he has a special connection with a certain member of Marvel's iconic Fantastic Four team, The Thing. Yes, that's the name of the character. Punk's iconic battle cry, “It’s clobberin’ time!” actually draws from The Thing, aka Ben Grimm, who shouts that exact phrase before launching into battle himself. The release of the Fantastic Four movie seems to have inspired Punk to don the colors of what is apparently one of his favorite superhero teams tonight at SummerSlam.

In fact, CM Punk even teased his outfit earlier in the night, as he was seen wearing a tank top featuring The Thing yelling “It’s clobberin’ time!” while shown arriving at MetLife Stadium earlier in the day as well. While we don't wanna spoil anything for you as pertains to the movie itself, let's just say that Rollins did spoil the party for Punk tonight, with his post-credits-like appearance spelling DOOM for The Second City Saint.

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Seth Rollins' cash-in on CM Punk was shocking, but it had been speculated on for quite some time

Seth Rollins' shocking appearance and cash-in on CM Punk followed a sensational main event between The Ring General and The Voice of the Voiceless, but his injury being a worked shoot swerve had been conjectured upon for quite some time.

The landscape of Monday Night RAW has changed once again, and not only did we have plenty of signs leading up to the shocking moment we saw tonight, but it made a lot of sense from the in-story perspective of Seth Rollins, too.

The fallout on the red brand will be a very interesting watch, but despite an underwhelming undercard tonight which is expected to be dwarfed tomorrow, tonight's main event match and of course its aftermatch (aftermath) is going to be very tough to follow up on, much like what John Cena and Cody Rhodes were tasked with at WrestleMania 41.

Edited by Harish Raj S