Mick Foley Recalls WWE WrestleMania Advice He Gave To CM Punk
CM Punk broke Mick Foley's heart a little bit.
Foley was asked about the future of the former AEW and WWE Champion on the most recent episode of "Foley Is Pod," and Foley doesn't care where Punk ends up. "I just want him to be happy," Foley said. "I understand what an amazing career he had."
Foley went on to say it was "a little sad" that Punk essentially wrote off the years he worked for WWE, "and made it sound like anything that happened after ROH was a waste of time." Foley thinks that's an unfair appraisal of Punk's career.
"This guy, he did some big stuff," Foley said. "He was a great champion; he was kinda like the glue that held that company together, and he had great matches with a variety of opponents."
Punk has one of the longer WWE Championship reigns of WWE's modern era at 434 days, though Punk himself was often down about his world title matches not being deemed worthy of closing WWE shows.
Petty, Punk, and Long After Dark
"I told him when he was a little down about not getting the main event slot, 'Punk, just go out there and steal the show. The fans make up their mind what the main event is," Foley said. The WWE Hall of Famer reminded Punk of his own match at WrestleMania 22 against fellow WWE Hall of Famer Edge. "Whether or not we stole the show, I don't know, but we had a right to claim we did, and we were not by any means the advertised main event."
Foley said that he wished Punk subscribed to the life philosophy. "You don't let anybody but you define for you what being a success is. If you can't be happy tearing down the house with The Undertaker, then where are you gonna be when you're 55, 60, and looking back on your career? I'd like him to appreciate what he did."
Foley went on to compare Punk's dismissal of his WWE career to Tom Petty dismissing one of his albums with the Heartbreakers, Long After Dark, which is one of Foley's favorites. "Every time he would dismiss it, it would make me feel a little bad about loving that album," the Hardcore Legend said.