On a recent edition of his “Hall of Fame” podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Booker T recalled his conversation with CM Punk at WWE NXT Deadline 2023.
Punk opened the show with Shawn Michaels.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On his conversation with CM Punk: “CM Punk wasn’t hiding [at Deadline]. He wasn’t hidden away in some room, making a surprise appearance. He was running around and mingling. I ran into CM Punk in catering, I was sitting there talking to Jeremy Borash. I walked up to CM Punk and said, ‘CM Punk! What up, man?’ He stands up, and he goes, ‘What’s up, man? You flip flopper.’ [laughs]. I go, ‘You know how the business is. Sometimes you’re a heel, sometimes you’re a babyface.’ [laughs]. It was very cool. We talked, small talk. He seemed to be at peace and ready to re-write the legacy of CM Punk and finish it off properly. I can’t say anything bad about him. I know people wish I would say something bad about CM Punk. I ain’t kissing ass or anything, either. It just seemed like he was in a calm space.”
On CM Punk seems to be a different person: “And I don’t know, people can say, ‘Oh, he’s just working or whatever,’ What I said when he did the promo, I said it seemed heartfelt to me. Just thinking about being back in that moment because you really don’t know how the fans are going to accept you when you do come back. And then when you do come back, it’s like, ‘Wow, they still love me.’ It’s one of those types of deals. And you go, ‘Wow, let me go to work’ type of deal. But that’s what I felt. That’s what I felt more than anything when I saw him on Saturday. You know, he was the regular CM Punk that I always knew.”
On never having beef with Punk: “People say over and over, ‘It feels like I have beef with CM Punk.’ I’ve never had a beef with CM Punk, not once. I’ve never gotten to the point where I said something negative to where, ‘Hey, I want to fight CM Punk,’ stupid stuff like that. No no, this is about business. When he said he’s not here to make friends, he’s here to make business. In this business, you have to have friends in order to do business. You’re working with a lot of guys that you’ve got to trust in the ring. It’s not like a UFC fight where you don’t have to care about each other. In this business, you have to care about the guys you’re working with. It’s just that simple. There is no way around it. If you don’t, it’s going to show. It’s going to show very quickly and you’re not going to last very long. That’s not something I have to tell CM Punk. I’m not saying that to CM Punk at all. He knows that. There’s a reason why things didn’t work out in AEW. It’s because a lot of those guys probably didn’t care about each other.”
