CM Punk has revealed that retirement isn’t on his mind.
Following his stunning return to WWE in 2023, CM Punk resumed his role as one of the company’s biggest stars almost a decade after walking out in 2014. Since then, he’s battled some of Monday Night RAW’s biggest names, and, in particular, his feud with Drew McIntyre grabbed headlines throughout 2024. Now, the two-time former WWE Champion has sat down to discuss a myriad of topics including whether retirement is on his mind and what he learned from Eddie Guerrero.
While speaking to Alistair McGeorge of Metro, Punk joked that he’d probably be dead or in jail if it wasn’t for wrestling, taking a moment to say that he only wanted to be a wrestler and didn’t aim for the fame that came along with it.
“You ask kids nowadays, what do you want to be when you grow up? And unfortunately, I think a lot of people say “I want to be famous”. That sucks. Fame sucks. Fame is a side effect of being successful at what I do,’ he pondered. ‘I wanted to be a wrestler. I never said I wanted to be a millionaire. I never said I wanted to be a WWE superstar. I wanted to be a wrestler. I got a pair of boots and I started wrestling.”
-CM Punk
Speaking about the late Eddie Guerrero, Punk recalled learning a lot from the man known as ‘Latino Heat’ throughout the years.
“I used to be able to just pick up the phone, call him and be like, “Hey”. He taught me, it’s not about moves, it’s about when you do them. He taught me about the connection between your fans and you and making it emotional. He taught me so much, invaluable experience was learned working with him.”
-CM Punk
Then, Punk touched on his infamous battle with John Cena on the February 25, 2013, edition of RAW, calling it the best match of his career.
“I had the flu, I had a fever, and I was just f***ing angry. I said “Well, this is the main event of WrestleMania. I know you guys are doing that, but that’s what this is”. So nobody could tell me anything, I did what I wanted. That’s probably the best match in my career. There was just an energy, and there was a buzz in the building. I think part of that is because I was just fuelled by anger at that point in my career. It got me out of bed.”
-CM Punk
On whether retirement crosses his mind, Punk went on to say that the business has changed to become much less tough on wrestlers, meaning that he’s already been able to continue performing longer than he’d initially thought.
“No, because you never know what’s going to happen. If you would ask me when I was 26 if I would be wrestling when I was 46, I would have been like, “No way,”. The business has changed so much, the miles that we put on our bodies for years and years and years, and now we’re here, and we’re wrestling maybe once a month, we’re doing one show a week.”
-CM Punk
Up next for CM Punk is his highly anticipated three-way match against both Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins. It’s been announced that the match will close the first night of WrestleMania 41, meaning the ‘Second City Saint’ is set to main event the ‘Show Of Shows’ for the first time in his career.
As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on CM Punk as soon as we hear more.
