CM Punk Talks Being WWE Champion, Being A Heel, Attacking The Rock & More
Recently, C.M. Punk was interviewed by 670 The Score, CBS Chicago and discussed a number of topics. Interesting topics included; the business in general, wearing the WWE championship, being a heel and a face, whether fans still enjoy technical wrestling, the backstage reaction to his infamous first "pipe bomb" and much more. Here are some of the highlights:
His thoughts on the state of the business: "I don't know if anything is going to reach my expectations. I have some pretty lofty expectations. There's good and there's bad in everything and mostly I think it boils down to opinion. What I think is good, a lot of the fans might not think is good. Honestly, that's who my boss is: the fans. If they're real loud, regardless of whether they're booing or cheering me, I know it's real good. So, that's sort of my barameter."
On what it means to wear the WWE championship: "What does it mean to me? Well, to me, it means you're carrying the company, you're putting asses in seats. You're kind of toeing the line and you're a leader."
On whether he's more comfortable as a heel or a face: "I think I'm more comfortable as a heel for sure. I think it's across the board. I think if you look — take comic books for instance. All the bad guys don't have rules to abide by. Good guys, anywhere in the world, they have a set of rules, maybe a code, that they have to follow. I think when you're a bad guy, that all goes out the window. You get to have a little bit more fun."
On whether or not fans still appreciate technical wrestling in general: I think there is. But, like I said earlier, it depends on what kind of crowd you're wrestling in front of. Every crowd is different, every crowd likes different things. So, you can't go out there and try to feed a crowd milk if they're lactose-intolerant. If this is the kind of crowd that you know likes and appreciates wrestling, then go out there and give them wrestling. If they're the types that appreciate show business, go give them show business.
On the backstage reaction to his now-infamous promo more than a year ago: "I've never been that 100% universally accepted in my entire life. [Laughs.] It was all smiles and high-fives when I walked back there.
On the type of performer he enjoys working with and if he believes he has had his best match yet: "Somebody who works as hard as I do. Somebody who works for the match and doesn't work for himself. Somebody who wants to go out there, leave it out there and entertain the fans. ... I don't know because I don't put much stock into whether I had a good match or what, because — and I find myself saying this a lot — but it's all an opinion. Whether or not some guy writing a wrestling newsletter thinks I had a five star match or not is irrelevant in my world. Because I don't know what that means.
"Shawn Michaels told me, 'When they're real loud, it's real good.' That's always the goal. Get them out of their seats, get them reacting one way or another. Our enemy is indifference. When people are sitting on their hands or are on their cell phones and looking around and they're not paying attention. That's when I know it's bad. When I know it's good, I walk away with an appreciation for a job well done. But, I'll never say, 'That was five stars,' or 'Man, follow that.' But, that is always the goal; make the next guy work harder than me."
On what fans can expect in the weeks to come: "The unexpected. I'm in to throwing people curveballs and basically just doing whatever the hell I want to do. I don't care if people like the fact that I jumped The Rock. I'm the WWE champion for a reason. I'm the best in the world and anybody that stands in my way, I'm not playing favorites. It's not a popularity contest to me. I'm just going to do what I do best."
On whether or not it's hard being straight-edge and whether or not people try to trip him up: "Yeah, especially when I say things like people are rewarded for drunk driving with endorsement deals (like Jon Jones). But that's the fine line of being in the public eye. Everyone wants to see you rise and everyone wants to see you fall just as bad."
You can check out the entire audio clip below.
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