WWE News: CM Punk On Scripting Promos And Working Safe Vs. Stiff In WWE
CM Punk’s goal of appearing on Colt Cabana’s podcast back on Thanksgiving of 2014 was to tell his side of the story, as it pertained to his departure from WWE. Punk’s intentions were to clear the air, rid the Internet of any more speculation, and move on. Unfortunately, the reaction from the initial podcast forced him into another appearance with Cabana a month later, and any interview he did thereafter invariably led to more WWE questions.
Punk became incensed with the wrestling inquiries when he was trying to pursue a career in MMA, to the point that he would no longer grant interviews if reporters had a WWE-agenda waiting for him. He took a break from the media circuit as further speculation swirled around whether he would actually ever step foot in an octagon for a UFC match. Fans finally got their answer with the news that he would face Mickey Gall at UFC 203 in September.
BREAKING: CM Punk will make his UFC debut vs. Mickey Gall at #UFC203 ? [? @ufc] pic.twitter.com/CIX5LFQW4t
— B/R Football (@brfootball) June 23, 2016
The booking of his UFC debut, of course, prompted a podcast to hype the fight. So, CM Punk appeared on UFC Unfiltered with Jim Norton and Matt Serra. They promoted the fight, but the hosts were able to work in some wrestling-related questions that Punk took in stride. WWE’s former “Best in the World”was known as one of the best promos in the business during his time. He sees the WWE lacking in that department today. (Thanks to Wrestling Inc for the transcription.)
“I think the good ones, the interviews and the promos people remember, those are improv. Now, [professional] wrestling’s just overscripted to death. It’s almost like they have a chokehold on it. Some guys need to operate that way and I feel like some people need to let loose and be themselves. You’ve got a whole room of guys writing for you. They don’t know you. They don’t know where you’re coming from. They don’t know your perspective or your character and stuff like that. And if you’re out there being disingenuous and saying words that three other people wrote, I always felt that the crowd could tell and then they’re going to pay attention to their phones or s–t on whatever segment you’re in. So yeah, I was always a fan of just kind of doing my own thing.”
CM Punk’s infamous pipe bomb from Las Vegas (ironically, where Money In The Bank took place this past Sunday) immediately comes to mind. Shooting from the hip was Punk’s forte, and he certainly didn’t shy away from criticism with Cabana, specifically laying into Ryback for being a careless worker. Punk shared some insight into the “safe vs. stiff” worker mentality, and how he approached other wrestlers differently.
“…some guys are safer than others and that’s all I’m saying. I worked my share of unsafe guys and that’s not to say they have the mentality that there were going to go in [the ring] and hurt me. Some guys are just clumsy. f–k, I was a clumsy motherf–ker. I was never the most super athletic guy, so sometimes I’d do s–t and f–king end up hurting myself… The people you actually wind up beating the s–t out of, those are your friends. If I was wrestling a guy I didn’t like, I would make sure to go out of my way to not f–king stiff the guy because then there’s a problem because he’s like, ‘oh, you did that on purpose’. If I f–king clock my friend in the face or kick him in the nuts or step on his hand or something like that, it’s just funny. You can laugh about it afterwards.”
[Image via WWE]
