WWE Wishes CM Punk Well In His New UFC Career

During last night’s UFC 181, former WWE wrestler CM Punk announced his signing with the UFC.

Punk, who left WWE back in January, admitted during his one-on-one interview with Joe Rogan that he had been contemplating making the jump to the UFC back in 2011 before he decided to re-sign with WWE. Now that his “professional wrestling days” are over, he has decided to finally join the UFC.

Earlier today, WWE released a brief and vague statement addressing CM Punk joining the UFC, and wished him the best in his new career.

“WWE wishes Phil Brooks [aka CM Punk] the best of luck in his newest endeavor.”

WWE never mentioned anything about Punk joining the UFC, however, they likely didn’t need to as any CM Punk fan already knows Punk’s future as of today.

In the past, WWE executives Vince McMahon and Paul Levesque [aka Triple H] have said that the UFC is not their competition. However, CM Punk and Alberto Del Rio revealed that after they were fired from WWE, their WWE contracts had a non-compete clause stating that they couldn’t join the UFC.

Both Punk and Del Rio settled with WWE after their termination, and are free to work wherever they want to from now on.

Current UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones took a stab at the UFC’s signing of CM Punk, saying on his Twitter that he’s now set to headline WrestleMania 31.

BREAKING NEWS: I'm headlining wrestlemania 31.

— BONY (@JonnyBones) December 7, 2014

Jones and Punk have had some issues in the past. Punk, who’s famously straight-edge, criticized Jones after Jones was arrested after receiving a DUI back in May of 2012.

UFC’s decision to sign CM Punk has been met with mixed reactions. MMA purists say that the UFC is “ruining MMA,” while less hardcore fans seem to be either indifferent or excited about the Punk signing.

In a one-on-one interview with Ariel Helwani, Punk said that he’s planning on fighting at middleweight, and that he’s not going to step into the octagon until he feels ready. Punk noted that it could take him up to six months to be ready to fight.

Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer said on last night’s post-UFC 181 Wrestling Observer Radio that the UFC will probably match Punk up with someone of his experience level, and could bring in another 0-0 fighter to take on Punk in his UFC debut.

There’s also still some debate on whether the UFC will have Punk make his debut on pay-per-view, or have him fight for free on FOX.