Several clips and quotes from Chris Van Vliet’s latest Insight interview are making the rounds today (July 9). There are plenty to choose from, as WWE’s Finn Bálor offers honest, thoughtful answers and stories from his 25 years in the pro wrestling business. We’re likely to a few more around the site in the coming days, and encourage you to share any you want to talk about in the comments or with your own Feed post
.The one that grabbed me was Bálor speaking about CM Punk. Yes, the clip includes
the Bullet Club founder and former Judgment Day leader offering his version of the “Punk’s changed” and/or “Punk’s not what I expected” quote we’ve heard from many since Phil Brooks returned to WWE in 2023, and Finn (real name Fergal Devitt) really emphasizes “horror stories” when talking about Punk’s reputation as a backstage malcontent.
But the story is mostly about how amazing the experience of wrestling Punk in his home country this past January. The 44-year-old Irishman challenged the then-WWE World Heavyweight champion on Raw in Dublin Jan. 19, and said it was the kind of night he thought he’d never have again at this point in his career. Bálor believes Punk got WWE to make the match happen, which is an example of how Phil Brooks has been “the opposite” of those “horror stories”:
The story comes when Finn’s answering Van Vliet’s question about his proudest moments in wrestling, and he gets emotional telling it.
“There’s so many ups and down in this business, and sometimes you think you’ve done it all and it’s never gonna get better. And then it somehow did, you know? And it — Punk is someone I never really interacted with much. I’d actually only met him once in my life, at Samoa Joe’s wedding. Like this is back in like 2002, 2003 maybe. Then he had left WWE when I had signed with NXT. So we never really had any interactions.
“And I’ll go on the record as saying, I’d heard horror stories about Punk being this asshole, being difficult to deal with, being a big-headed guy that no one wants to work with. And when he came back to WWE, it could not have been [more] the opposite. I met this guy who was humble, polite, wanted to work with people. And I’m pretty sure he went to the office, and he said he wanted this match.
“I don’t think it came from the office. I think it came from Punk. The way that it unfolded, like that match could have been anywhere. I could have been in any random city in the United States. But it was in Belfast, like my home country. It was my mom’s birthday the day before, so she was there. Then we done the match, the crowd reaction was unbelievable… it was unbelievable, we brought back the old music. It was so fun, I was enjoying it. I wasn’t thinking about the match, I was just living it.
“It was easy to work with Phil. It was like we’re just having fun; we were talking to each other out there, it was great. We done the match one, two, three. I leave him in the ring, I walk to the back, [thinking] ‘That was so cool, that was so cool.’
“And then I hear him, ‘Hey where’s Finn?’ I can hear him on the mic. Then the producers are running cause I’m off taking my tape off and going ‘fuck, that was so cool, I’m going to get to see my family now, it’s cool’, and they’re saying, ‘Punk’s calling you out the ring.’
”I walk back out there, I’m like ‘What am I gonna say? Shit.’ I don’t really like doing promos and stuff, you know? I don’t like speaking in general, I’d rather rely on my work, you know? And he gave me the microphone, left the ring. I got to sing my mom happy birthday in front of fucking everybody.’ It’s the fucking coolest thing, man…
“And then getting a couple weeks later to it again in Chicago with him, it was like tit for tat. I think it meant as much to him in Chicago as it did to me in Belfast.
”I think we’ll share that bond for a long time.”
Great story. Doesn’t support the Hulk Hogan comparisons/theories, but it lines up nicely with word Punk wanted Bálor on SmackDown with him.
Check it out. This should be queued to the start of the above transcription, but the whole episode of Insight is worth a watch or listen.
