CM Punk says realizing how many talents he has inspired to get into wrestling is humbling to him.
The Straight Edge Star recently appeared on the No Contest Wrestling podcast. He discussed things such as how he became a Paul Heyman Guy, his own experience in WWE developmental, and more.
During the interview, they brought up the famous photo of a younger Punk posing with Stone Cold Steve Austin and how he got to show it to the Texas Rattlesnake after he joined WWE.
Now that the former world champion is working closely with young talents in NXT, he was asked if any of the talents have shared any similar memories about his work. CM Punk said that it’s humbling to know that almost everyone there has a story about him:
“Every single one of them, and I go home to my wife, just completely humbled and emotional about it. Because again, going back to earlier in the conversation where I said ‘I woke up one day and I was this dude’—you know? When kids come up to me, and they’re comfortable enough to be like, ‘Hey, look at this.’ And It’s a picture of them when they were little at an autograph signing and they tell me, ‘Hey, you inspired me to do this.’ It’s just like me getting to tell Roddy Piper, ‘Hey, you’re the reason I did this.’ I don’t know if it meant anything to him, but it meant something to me to be able to tell him that.”
CM Punk mentioned how the conditions were much different during his own time in developmental and things have improved for the better. He explained that sharing this connection with young talents makes him want to protect them from all the difficulties he had to deal with while coming up:
“I love the fact that there’s kids that come up to me and they show me pictures like ‘Hey, this is me and you at an autograph signing or at a show.’ Or them wearing CM Punk gear. All that stuff, because it humbles me. It makes me know that I did okay.”
The Chicago native won his most recent Hell In A Cell match against Drew McIntyre at Bad Blood. In his Raw promo after the match, Punk indicated that he’ll be taking some time off from WWE after the intense rivalry with the Scottish Psychopath.
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You can check out part 2 of CM Punk’s interview with No Contest Wrestling below:
