During a recent appearance on the “Busted Open Radio” podcast, CM Punk spoke about the feud he will be most remembered for.
He mentioned his intense rivalry with Drew McIntyre, admitting recency bias might play a role.
Punk also credited legends like Terry Funk, Harley Race, Bret Hart, and Shawn Michaels for shaping his career with great advice over the years.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On the feud he’ll be most remembered for: “I’m fortunate — or unfortunate, depending on what side of the coin you’re on — to have been in a lot of great ones. Ones that people have actually forgotten about. Maybe some recency bias, I think probably the hatred that I had for Drew McIntyre and in teurn the hatred he had for me — I think that one will stand the test of time for sure.”
On who gave him the best career advice: “Too hard to narrow down. Too wide of a spectrum of some of the more brilliant minds in wrestling. I mean, you’ve named a few of them there. A lot of them aren’t with us anymore. Terry [Funk], Harley [Race], Tracy Smothers, Eddie Guerrero. And then there’s the ones that we are currently fortunate to still have, that even to this day still give me great advice. Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels. These are these are guys who I can reach out to and ask a question, whether it’s something that happened in the late 90s or, ‘Hey, I’m thinking of this,’ I can bounce these ideas off them and get their perspective. It’d be way too hard to narrow down one specific nugget of information from the litany of legends that I’ve been fortunate enough to learn from.”
On his connection with fans: “It’s a combination of both of those things. I think initially it’s the authenticity that I bring. It’s being myself, but it’s also the job. I’m in the job of manipulating the emotions of the audience based on where I want them to go. When you’ve done it for this long, you develop a currency with the audience. So even if I thought it would be a great idea to try to get these people to hate me, I think that’s going to be a tough ask. We saw it recently with John Cena. I don’t think people really want to boo Randy [Orton]. I think the situation’s got to be right.”
“But I’m fortunate to have that currency with the audience. It’s just being around, being in their living rooms every Monday and Friday for X amount of years. It’s going away and coming back. How do they miss me if I don’t go away? It’s just a career that was crafted by a lot of those brilliant legends that we just previously talked about. I don’t get here by myself, I’m standing on the shoulders of giants.”
On his rivalry with Drew McIntyre: “I’m fortunate or unfortunate, depending on what side of the coin you’re on to have been in a lot of great ones. Ones that people have actually forgotten about. Maybe some recency bias. I think probably the hatred that I had for Drew McIntyre and during the hatred he had for me, I think that one will stand the test of time for sure.”
