The controversial WWE star shoots from the hip on the lies of professional wrestling, his potential departure from the company, and what really happens behind the scenes

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In the wrong hands, professional wrestling can be a boring thing indeed, a rinse-and-repeat cycle of predictable storytelling and zero-stakes feuds. For a few years now, World Wrestling Entertainment has spent much of its time in a lamentable rut, focusing much of its attention on central figure John Cena and his kid-friendly potty humor and square-jawed heroics. But over the past month or so, that’s been changing. Cena has a new foe: C.M. Punk, a tatted-up, fire-eyed, uncommonly erudite bad guy who thinks, and sometimes acts, like a good guy. But there’s a catch to that feud. It won’t last long, since Punk doesn’t expect to be in the company a week from now.

C.M. Punk is a wrestling veteran, a guy who kicked around the small-time independent scene for years before finally linking up with the WWE. Within the company, he’s had an impressive run: Three world championships, a few memorable speeches, a string of wonderful matches. But he’s never been the focal point of the company, despite being arguably its most gifted in-ring storyteller, and that’s always eaten at him. So, about a month ago, he announced on live TV that his contract was about to be up and that he would wrestle John Cena for the WWE title the night before leaving the company. That match would go down at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view event, which comes to Chicago’s Allstate Arena on Sunday night.

Then, on an episode of “Monday Night Raw: two weeks ago, Punk absolutely laid into the company in a blistering, wild-eyed promo speech that indicted everything about the WWE. He invoked the names of fired wrestlers, he lamented the loss of emphasis on wrestling itself (rather than the more nebulous “entertainment” that the WWE likes to use these days), and he even tore into company figurehead Vince McMahon and his entire family. (In one particularly genius moment, he referred to McMahon’s son-in-law and presumed successor Triple H as a “doofus.”) He did all this with patience and writerly precision, eschewing catchphrases and building into a messianic fervor until his mic suddenly went silent and the show came to an abrupt halt. It was a genuinely electric moment on a show that’s had too few of those lately.
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UK Sun

Punk is known for his outspoken views, which have often caused trouble backstage and got him in hot water with his bosses.

However, reflecting on a career that saw him start by wrestling in his garden as a teenager, the headliner said he wouldn’t change a thing.

Speaking to Fighting Spirit Magazine, Punk said: “For me the thing I’m most proud of — aside from being three-time heavyweight champion and winning Money In The Bank — is the fact that I started wrestling in my backyard when I was 15, and now I’m here.

“When a WWE PPV finished, I went to the backyard with my friends and we started trading blows with each other, just goofing off.

“I was CM Punk when I was rolling around with my friends in the backyard when I was 15, and now I’m CM Punk at WrestleMania XXVII fighting Randy Orton in front of 70,000 people. Continue reading »

WWE.com posted the “WWE Countdown: Top 10 Trash Talkers of All Time” – watch it on WWE.com.

Sins of the Ring

There are moments of glory the WWE Universe will always remember. Hogan slamming Andre. Eddie winning the WWE Championship. Then there are moments they can’t forget — the double crosses, heartbreaking betrayals and fiery assaults that remind us how dangerous a career in WWE can truly be. In this Top 25, WWE.com looks back in anger at the most sinister things ever done in and out of the squared circle. Enter at your own risk.

# 07: Party Crasher

This was CM Punk at his most depraved. Disheveled, unhinged and flanked by the dead-eyed zombies in his Straight Edge Society, the soulless Superstar crashed a celebration for Rey Mysterio’s daughter on SmackDown in 2010. Knowing that Mysterio would have no choice but to stay by the side of his wife and children, Punk took his time as he slinked across the ring and warbled his way through a haunting rendition of the “Happy Birthday” song. There was no physical violence here, but there didn’t need to be. Punk embarrassed Rey in front of his family — a humiliation more painful than any bare-knuckle beating.

They’re the rule-breakers. The miscreants. The rogues we love to loathe. Throughout WWE history, there has been a varied assortment of individuals – both inside & outside the ring – who seem to thrive not on adulation, but on eliciting a chorus of boos from the WWE Universe whenever they stride down the entrance ramp. But which of these villainous offenders deserve top (dis)honors?

In 2011, WWE.com inducts its first annual selection of notorious Superstars & personalities into the Hall of Infamy, a veritable “who’s who” of WWE’s most sinister malcontents & masterminds.

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The Buffalo Bills’ Shawn Merriman is no stranger to public feuds. He has traded shots with former NFL Defensive Player of the Year Jason Taylor and sued ex-girlfriend and reality TV star Tila Tequila. Now, the three-time NFL Pro-Bowler nicknamed “Lights Out” can add former World Wrestling Entertainment Champion CM Punk to his growing list of feuds.

It all began on Saturday when Punk, a Chicago resident and Lockport, Ill. native, tweeted “Watching Shawne Merriman of the Buffalo Bills hit on our divas and strike out. Reminds me of the Bills in the Super Bowl.” Merriman, who happened to be in Costa Rica at the same time as WWE’s Superstars and Divas, tweeted back “I was just giving you guys some hope. Look like you were struggling by the pool.”

After Punk tweeted “If you could get to a QB as fast as you ran after our divas, maybe you’d make headlines being a Pro Bowler and not a creep,” Merriman, who last made the Pro Bowl in 2007, fired back, “How about I come and deliver a nice special Lights Out (butt) woopin tonight Costa Rican Style?”

Punk proclaimed himself the victor of the Twitter feud after that. “Clearly, I have defeated you,” he tweeted. “However, You will have plenty of time to think of a better come back while you ride the bench for another entire season.” Merriman’s response? “It’s bad when I thought you worked at the hotel … I almost handed you my f’ing towel. Go do some push ups,” he tweeted. “Do me a favor (and) turn your little wrestling underwear around and give yourself a wedge.”

Although Merriman appeared at WWE’s “One Night Stand” Pay Per View in 2008 and once said in an interview that a future in wrestling was “a possibility,” the insults between Punk and Merriman seem a little too personal for this feud to be a staged wrestling storyline.

When reached by email on Monday, Punk wrote, “All I did was observe him walking around poolside, back and fourth, around in circles. I had no clue who he was, just knew that this guy was obviously trying to get noticed. When that didn’t work, he sent his publicist after the girls, which is the most lacking of testicles thing ever. That’s how we found out who he was.

“When THAT didn’t work I watched him run after them as they tried to leave. Dude clowned himself and all I did was report the facts and laugh about it. On the road, the WWE is a family. The divas are my sisters, and like any big brother, I don’t want creeps around my little sisters.”

CM Punk has that maniacal glint in his eye. He’s gotten really good at the maniacal glint thing lately. He’s taunting the beloved masked luchadore Rey Mysterio, Jr. at the Staples Center in Los Angeles during the taping of the Friday March 19th installment of “WWE Smackdown.” The week before, Punk ruined an in-ring celebration for Mysterio’s daughter Aaliyah’s ninth birthday. In case we missed all the high drama, the WWE showed a tightly edited clip of Punk wrecking the festivities on the high def big screen over the ring entrance.

But Punk’s taunts aren’t the usual kind of pro wrestling bluster bordering on histrionics. He’s not yelling, “I’ll assassinate the bum.” No, punk sounds more like someone playing a cult leader in a David Lynch movie. With his Manson-like full beard, he looks the part too. “I could save you if you could just accept me as your savior,” Punk says, urging Mysterio to join his little wrestling cult called the Straight Edge Society. Currently, this society only consists of two members: the thuggish wrestler Luke Gallows and Sirena, a plant from the audience that Punk converted during a previous episode of this macho soap opera. The line between pro wrestling and tent house revivals has always been a thin one, but Punk’s disciples still perform the task of the traditional bad guy wrestler’s entourage by interfering with matches when the ref’s back is turned.

Read the rest of the article with Bob Calhoun by clicking here.

As the Straight Edge Superstar heads to WrestleMania, we talk with him about his love for comics and kickin’ butt.
By Arune Singh

Every week on “WWE Friday Night SmackDown,” there’s one superstar who draws the ire of fans more than anyone else, even though he’s trying to lead them on the path to salvation…of a sort. Meet CM Punk, the self-styled “Straight Edge Superstar” of the WWE Universe, whose only goal is to rid the world of addiction to alcohol and drugs by converting people to the straight edge lifestyle. Unfortunately for non-believers, rejection of Punk’s ideals often leads to a brutal beat down by his Straight Edge Society. On the verge of Punk’s hotly-anticipated WrestleMania 26 match with Rey Mysterio, Marvel.Com spoke with the WWE superstar about his love for comics and appearing on the grandest stage of them all.

Like many comic book fans, Punk’s passion began at a young age, he explained. “My first job was at a comic book store and Larry Hama’s G.I. JOE is what got me into comics. It’s funny because it’s such a well-written book and to start off reading that really set the bar high. I initially read it because I was a fan of the cartoon, the toys and all that, but the comic was so sophisticated, so sleek and so different from the cartoon. Then I discovered comic shops once Gas City [a gas station franchise with attached stores] stopped carrying comic books and I couldn’t get my monthly G.I. JOE fix.

Read the entire article with Marvel by clicking here.

Skysports.com caught up with Mr Money In The Bank CM Punk ahead of Judgement Day, which is live on Sky Box Office on May 17.

The two-time Money In The Bank winner has yet to cash in his championship challenging contract, with Umaga the latest fighter to stand in his way.

And as Punk concludes his preparation for the match with the Samoan Bulldozer, Skysports.com caught up with the Straightedge Superstar to talk about his rapid rise up the WWE ladder, and the bumps he has taken along the way.

Here is an preview:

Q: Which wrestler did you most admire growing up? Who was an inspiration?
A: That’s a hard question to answer because there are so many. Shawn Michaels is definitely one and he is pretty relevant because he’s still with the company. Ricky Steamboat and Bret Hart as well, those three guys are probably the big ones.

Q: Was there a particular moment or match where you thought ‘this is it, this is what I want to do’?
A: Ever since I can remember remembering this is what I have wanted to do. This is the only thing I have ever wanted to do. I generally equate watching Rowdy Piper smash a coconut over Jimmy Snuka’s head thinking ‘wow I want to smash stuff over people’s heads and get paid for it’.

Q: Do you think it’s important to keep the old and new breed together in the business? How do you see that going forwards?
A: There are plenty of veterans involved that don’t actively wrestle: Arn Anderson, Ricky Steamboat, even though he just competed at WrestleMania and Backlash, Mike Rotunda [aka Irwin R.Schyster], Dean Malenko. These guys are still around even though they’re not in the ring, they’re still there with their wealth of knowledge and they’re there for the young guys to pick their brains. It’s important to have the connection with the past. Without them and what they did we’re nothing.

Q: Mickey Rourke’s film ‘The Wrestler’ highlighted some of the brutal realities of wrestling and I was just wondering how many times do you fight a week? How do you cope with that strain on your body physically?
A: Normally in the States it’s four times a week. Physically you’ve got to stay in shape. I stretch, I work out, I drink a lot of water and I try to eat right.

Click here to read the rest of the interview.

On wwe.com when CM Punk was asked which WWE Legend he feels he is most like, he went with Bret Hart.

I think it may sound egotistical to liken yourself to any WWE Legend, but if I there was anybody to liken myself to, it was a guy like Bret “Hit Man” Hart, who was more about what he did in the ring than outside the ring. There are a lot of similarities between he and I. I’m not the biggest guy, I’m not the fatest, I’m not the smartest. I’m a jack of all trades, a little bit of everything. I’d like to think I bring at least that to the table.