Professional wrestler turned mixed martial artist CM Punk has come forward with a few words concerning budding WWE superstar Ronda Rousey.
While CM Punk is gearing up for his octagon return, former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey is enjoying a thriving career within the WWE. Speaking in a recent media scrum, CM Punk revealed what he told Ronda Rousey as advice as she began her career with the WWE.
“The only thing I told her was to just have fun. I don’t know what it’s like back there in this current environment. I know she’d probably get treated differently, just as I know I probably get treated differently here. The only thing I ever told her is, ‘I know you’ve got a lot of people telling you, do this, don’t do this’ — whatever you do, when you go out there for WrestleMania, make sure you have fun. Period.”
“No, I did not,” CM Punk said, concerning Rousey’s WrestleMania 34 appearance. “I saw a couple of clips here and there. And still, when I say it’s hard for me to watch wrestling, it’s not like an anxiety thing, it’s not like an, ‘ugh, I can’t do it.’ I literally, I can’t get through eight seconds without being like, ‘OK, umm, can I change the channel? I’m bored, I gotta watch something else.’ It’s like going to a baseball game at [New York Mets stadium] CitiField. I like Wrigley Field, it’s old school. Going to a baseball game at CitiField, it’s like a guy gets ball four and they blow off fireworks and there’s LED screens on everything.
“Wrestling now is completely like that. There’s LED screens everywhere and there’s flashing lights and I feel like I’m gonna have a seizure.”
“Same thing. I don’t know why. Subconsciously, there’s like a disconnect. I see clips. I know [New Japan star] Kenny Omega is the hot guy. He’s probably one of the better guys in the world right now, but it’s the same thing. I’ll watch clips of matches, I don’t see myself watching a full match. I just can’t do it.”
When Punk was coming up, he said he preferred the small shows in small, intimate venues — ones that were not on television and didn’t have any of the glitz and glamour.
“I think it’s definitely too glossy, but it’s been like that for a long time,” CM Punk said. “My jam was house shows before they started calling them live events, where it was a curtain and a ring and a light above the ring. That was my jam. That was my world, that was where I liked to thrive.”
