One of the most heartbreaking losses at Evo 2017 was that of Panda Global’s Victor “Punk” Woodley at the grand finals of Street Fighter V. The player many thought would be the first American to win at a Street Fighter at Evo was visibly distraught after losing to Echo Fox’s Hajime “Tokido” Taniguchi.
Following this, Punk tweeted that he felt that he had “let everyone down” and was “so disappointed in myself.” To which many of his friends and fans came out in numbers to try to cheer up Punk. Of all these, one of the most meaningful for the 18-year-old may be from none other than former WWE pro wrestler Phil “CM Punk” Brooks.
The Fighting Game Community has always had this interesting connection to pro-wrestling. Many players are fans of pro-wrestling, and a number of pro-wrestlers are big fans of fighting games. Falling into the former, Punk actually chose his handle because he was a fan of CM Punk and his attitude. As such, the video message, which fellow pro-wrestler and fighting game fan Kenny Omega shared on his Twitter for Punk to see, is quite special to the young rising fighting game star.
.@PunkDaGod A friend of mine wanted to make sure you saw this… Chin up, buddy – the best is yet to come! pic.twitter.com/e35FZDsxD2
— Kenny Omega (@KennyOmegamanX) July 19, 2017
“Everyone’s proud of you. Nobody feels let down by you. You made it all the way to finals, and everybody has no doubt that you’ll do it again. Fall down once, get up twice. Fall down seven times, get up eight. See you in the finals next time.”
In response to the message, Punk was quite surprised and very thankful. In a later tweet, he also promised to do his best to “take it for America next year.”
Source: Kenny Omega