AEW Star CM Punk, who left WWE and professional wrestling in 2014 shortly after that year’s WWE Royal Rumble Event reportedly due to the physical toll and effect pro wrestling had on his body at the time and due to the way he was treated, recently spoke with The Wrap on how he feels after making a return to pro wrestling after a 7-year hiatus and taking bumps as a 42-year-old.
This is what CM Punk said:
“Oh, I feel like trash, I’ll be honest.” “I’m 42 years old and I haven’t taken bumps in seven-plus years. I think there’s something to building up a callus, to something you do on a regular basis becoming easier because you do it on a regular basis.”
“I think a lot of wrestlers are feeling this right now. The pandemic, when it shut everything down and it essentially killed house-show business — they’re not on the road, they’re not taking bumps Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday — I think everybody kind of felt this awfulness of ‘Oh man, I’m wrestling less-frequently than I used to,’ (but) it feels worse somehow.”
CM Punk also talked about how the pro wrestling business is much better now than it was before and he feels much better knowing that the schedule is much more flexible now, which is one of the reasons he came back and that talents are no longer treated like cattle.
This is what CM Punk said:
“It’s 100% better (now).” “I don’t gotta drive into a town and try to check into a hotel at 4:30 in the morning and find out there’s a clown convention in town and all the hotels are booked up.”
“(The) appealing schedule (is) one of the reasons I came back. The pandemic and the reset kind of made it to where the wrestlers have that better schedule and they have more say over– this is easier and this is the way it should be. You can’t treat us like cattle, and that’s definitely an appeal.”
