CM Punk says he always speaks from the heart, whether it’s a promo about an opponent or a friend in need of support.
CM Punk recently spoke with Chris Mueller for Bleacher Report ahead of AEW Full Gear on Saturday. Punk was asked about his approach to wrestling promos and what he tells younger talent.
“Because I was in a system that relied heavily on written and scripted promos but coming from a place of freedom where I could do and say whatever I wanted, my advice and normally my approach is to talk from the heart,” Punk said. “That’s something Dusty Rhodes and Roddy Piper would always tell me.
“You can take the best stuff, you can have a couple of cool lines you know you want to say that you heard from a movie or a song or something like that, but the more you talk about it, you tend to kind of overcook it. You want your food to be cooked just right. But I found that dwelling on stuff and coming up with exactly what you’re going to say is never the right thing to do,” Punk said, “because you’re in front of a live audience and you don’t know how they’re going to react. So you need the wiggle room on either side of what you’re going to say to kind of creatively better whatever you’re doing based on the crowd’s reaction.”
During his appearance on the November 3 episode of Dynamite, CM Punk spoke about Jon Moxley’s decision to enter an inpatient alcohol treatment program and how he knows what it’s like to push yourself too far. Punk said he didn’t want anyone to criticize Moxley for asking for help and said he was in fact proud of him for being so courageous, and told Mueller why he addressed the situation the way that he did.
“When the Moxley news broke, first and foremost, we needed to make sure he was in a good spot and that he knew he didn’t have to rush back and he can work on himself and his family,” Punk said. “But I didn’t know exactly what to say or how to approach it. I just knew that I would figure it out once I got in front of the people.
“You saw signs [in the crowd] already from people supporting Moxley. We came to a point where we had a very powerful message to send: a message of courage on his part and a message of support on our part. And I think the real world needs to see that right now. We’re all real people with real problems.”
