UFC welterweight and former WWE Champion CM Punk was recently a guest on Windy City Live to talk about his professional wrestling career and the transition into mixed martial arts (MMA). Here are the highlights:
On when his desire to be a WWE Superstar began:
“I’m not sure. Obviously, I watched WWF as a kid, but when I made the conscious decision – WWF was never the end goal. I romanticized about Japanese wrestling. There was two companies in Japan, it was called All Japan and New Japan, and that was my thing. I was more about going over there and being a star over there, then coming home and just being completely – you can walk down the street and nobody knows you. That was my style, I liked it. But I worked so long and hard at it that it became so boring, it became the last frontier was WWE. I had to go see if I could conquer that so I gave it a shot.”
On fighting being tough:
“It’s all tough. I was a wrestler throwing myself to the ground 300 days a year, now I’m more focused on different disciplines and I get to sleep in my own bed every night.
“Isn’t that great though? To me, there’s something so romantic about that. You walk into a cage and there’s a winner and a loser. People can make excuses but at the end of the day, there’s a winner and a loser. I think in this world, because in my opinion you only get one time around, if you’re scared of something I think it’s best to face it head on. I’m comfortable with being uncomfortable.”
(quotes via Wrestling Inc.)
