During an appearance on Mostly Sports With Mark Titus and Brandon Walker, CM Punk chatted with Walker about how he’s changed between his first WWE run in the aughts and 2010s and the one that began almost
exactly two years ago.
Punk said he isn’t fighting to prove he’s the Best in the World like he was before, and is much more secure in his spot this time. That led Walker to ask if that means Punk’s less combative with himself and others now, and the WWE World Heavyweight responded, that “it was definitely combative with me, but it was also combative with, like, everybody else, too.”
So Walker asked if “the younger guys have that combative nature” and aim for the top like Punk and others did in the past. His response is what’s made the internet rounds today (Nov. 19):
“Some do and some don’t.
“The business has radically changed. It was a different place when I signed, than when I debuted, and then when I came back — it’s such a radically different place. The thing with the title too is also it means you made more money. That does not exist anymore… It’s good and bad.
“We all make more money now, which is — thumbs up… My paycheck was always predicated on how many people were in the building, so I was driven towards ticket sales and the business of it. And when you’re in the main events, you got paid more money. Now everyone is just kind of on salary. I think that’s good and bad. It’s good for the boys. But also I feel there’s not the same ambition, you know?
“I always wanted to be in the main event because it got me more money… Now I don’t care if I’m the opening match, because I’m still going to make the same. I can shower and watch the show now.”
When I first saw the quote aggregated, it struck me as not that different from Undertaker longing for the days of knife fights rather than video game tournaments in the locker room (or someone who’s paid off their student loans unhappy about anyone else having theirs canceled… not that we have to worry about that any more).
But after going back and watching him say it in context, and discussing the quote with some fellow staffers*, it reads differently to me.
I still think any part of Punk wishing for a return to the days when the promoter was the booker and the paymaster is odd considering how long he railed against that system. However, it’s not odd to point out that one of the unintended and sometimes unfortunate effects of guaranteed minimums is that some people will coast on them. Everyone won’t, and there are still incentives to perform in most cases — in WWE I’d assume they involve merchandise sales and outside opportunities. But it can be an issue; I’d just argue it’s worth coming up with ways of mitigating the impact of less motivated teammates rather than returning to the old ways completely.
And maybe Punk would have said those things if they’d been talking about pay and not changes in wrestler attitudes. Perhaps he’d have put some dates to when things changed so we’d know how much of it is due to TKO assuming control.
But Walker returned the conversation to Punk and how he’s changed, and the pay discussion was left to us. We found it an interesting discussion in the cSs “office”, so we figured you might too.
Discuss away in the comments, and head here to watch Punk’s appearance on Mostly Sports for yourself.
* A discussion that, in part, served to remind me that I was letting the fact I’ve soured on Punk quite a bit since his return to WWE influence my take. That souring is not out of loyalty to AEW or having a side in that fight, but because while I understand his moves and motives over the past several years — they run counter to the outsider spirit that drew me to him originally.
