When Chris Benoit and CM Punk battle for the vacant ECW World Title at Vengeance: Night of Champions, it will be a clash of both present – and perhaps future – legends in sports-entertainment.

The Rabid Wolverine is a former World Champion and perhaps a future WWE Hall of Famer. CM Punk is an up-and-coming ECW Superstar and perhaps a future World Champion. They represent the past, the present and future of ECW and all of sports-entertainment – and in many ways are mirror images of each other.

Benoit has referred to professional wrestling as his “mistress, my passion.” Punk has espoused the virtues of clean living – the Straightedge lifestyle – and said that his only addiction is competition. Their battle over the ECW World Title this Sunday will be a clash of titans who share the same passion for battle inside the squared circle and share a mutual code of honor.

For Benoit, the ECW World Title would further cement his legacy and status as one of the greatest of all time. He has a championship resume that many younger ECW Superstars – like CM Punk – would love to have. The Wolverine is an ECW Original, and his return to the Land of Extreme – and an ECW World Title victory – would put an exclamation point on a career that has come full circle.

Punk has been touted as a future World Champion since his debut in ECW last year. He grew up watching Benoit. An ECW World Title win, especially over a man he admires, would mark the first title victory of his career and send a message throughout the Land of the Extreme and all of sports-entertainment that he has truly arrived. And Punk desperately wants to come through on a grand stage such as Vengeance: Night of Champions; he has only received one opportunity at the ECW World Title, and that was at December to Dismember in the Extreme Elimination Chamber. Who knows when – or if – he will get another opportunity if he falls short in his encounter with Benoit.

Who will be the next kingpin of ECW? Will ECW go Rabid or will it become Straightedge? Either way, it will be a historic night and the dawning of a new era in ECW.