Below is a transcription of a recent interview between CM Punk and Severe MMA, from last week’s big UFC media blitz in Las Vegas.
On his burnout with pro wrestling:
“Burnout is a real thing. I was going at such a high level for so long. If you don’t believe in yourself, nobody else is going to. I believed I was the best guy there. Because it is a fake or predetermined sport, I felt like I was getting my fair shake. I had been there long enough, and heard the same bullshit to know that I wasn’t ever going to get what I wanted. Now I’m in a place where I’m not the best I can be, I’m gonna get beat up. That’s good motivation to be the best you can be.”
On his UFC dream debut card:
“If I had to pick a dream card, I would love to be on a show with Conor [McGregor]. I would love to be on a show with Ronda [Rousey]. Of course you want to break numbers and set records and all that stuff, but I don’t look too far into the future. Is it Thursday? I’m thinking about Monday. I can’t wait to be back in Milwaukee training.”
On his glory days of Ring of Honor:
“Joe went to TNA. I went to WWE. We both took gambles. We had built up ROH to be a place where guys could go and not just work, but learn. To get better. A lot of guys had been around the horn, working for all these indies, and it eventually gets a little tedious when you see the same guys, and nobody is really getting any better. We had this core group of people, and we turned Ring of Honor into something we were all super, super proud of.”
The change in wrestling landscape:
“I think it’s funny now, when you look at the pro wrestling landscape. All the guys they’re hiring, all the guys they’re putting on television. I don’t know if that happens if a guy like me, and guy like Joe don’t take a chance. Everybody is talented in their own right, but everything I was made fun of, and vilified for by management, is now what they’re looking for in guys. And I wear that like a badge of honor.” … “It’s a big ‘I f***ing told you so. You should have listened to me in 2005.'”
Will WWE pull the trigger on Samoa Joe?:
I hope so. They should. He deserves it more than anybody. I sit back and I laugh – good for all these guys. I hope they all make millions of dollars. They can support their kids and live how they want to live. I’m not taking credit for their success – they would have made it eventually, somewhere somehow. I just think it’s funny the machine that never wanted me, now wants me.
