When CM Punk's initial run in the WWE Universe came to an end, it felt like the system had won.
Widely celebrated for being the “Voice of the Voiceless,” a hero to the hardcore fans who missed the WWE they grew up on, Punk fought the system at every turn, went to bat against the corporation – but upper and lowercase – and kept fans tuning in, even if they weren't particularly excited about “The Face That Runs the Place” or any of the other storylines Vince McMahon was high on during the PG era.
And a decade later, Punk is back, McMahon is gone, and he's working alongside Paul “Triple H” Levesque, a man he very publically feuded with a decade ago in a deeply personal manner.
Discussing Punk's return to the WWE Universe in an interview with Huge Pop, Punk's good friend, and Brawl Out tag team partner Ace Steel, discussed the “Best in the World's” feeling on his big comeback and how “The Game” isn't too dissimilar to his former rival at this stage of the game.
“He's in such a great place, and he wants to be the guy who gives back to basically all these kids who watched him growing up. He's having the time of his life. This is what it should be. The company is what it should be. I told him this before he came back because I had a relationship with Hunter being at NXT because Hunter ran NXT. I said, ‘[Hunter] came in every day and would shake my hand.' I was sitting at the table. ‘How are you?' ‘Hey. How are you?' It wasn't like, ‘I'm going to call him Sir.' You know how it is being around Vince (McMahon). You're on pins and needles. Hunter is not that way. He doesn't run his ship that way. Before he went back, I was like, ‘I think you guys are more alike than you probably would like to admit.' He will now admit that because of the way they feel about this industry. Hunter said that, too. ‘We were exactly alike, just butting heads on a lot of different things.' They are in tune and aligned to make this industry better,” Steel explained via Fightful.
“Punk is loving all of it. When he comes to visit me and says, ‘The kids ask me to come down to the Performance Center.' I said, ‘I know what you're doing. I see you all the time. You're having fun.' This is what his return to wrestling was supposed to be. It's what it was supposed to be. He's changing in the locker room. He doesn't want an extra locker room or to sit apart from everybody. He wants to be in the mix and answering questions. It's great for him. I said this before when he was out of wrestling, he loves wrestling. He loved wrestling more when we were traveling roads, maybe $40 or $50, and making long trips because that was it. Obviously, there is a lot more money on the line. The hardest part of this business is when it becomes a business for you. You have to watch it because you'll lose all the love. You can end up hating things when it becomes a job. You have to tweak it so it's not quite such a job.”
Gosh, is this a regular “You either die a hero or live long enough to become a villain”-type of situation? Has Punk stopped raging against the machine and instead become a cog in a multi-billion dollar company? Or has he changed the machine enough to make for a more equitable situation all around, as there's now a 14-time World Champion running the show as CCO and a four-time World Champion in Shawn Michaels teaching the next generation of Superstars in NXT? That, folks, is the million-dollar question Punker has to ask himself, as his actions clearly point to more of the latter than the former.
CM Punk isn't just helping young talent in NXT
While much has been written, discussed, and analyzed about Punk's interest in NXT, with the “Second City Saint” frequenting the PC to help out young stars in an equity-building operation to maybe, just maybe, take over the developmental brand when HBK calls it a career – depending on who you ask – as it turns out, his interest in fostering the next generation of wrestlers isn't just limited to the WWE system.
Need proof? Well, Steel provided it in the very same interview, noting that Punk comes through his wrestling school fairly frequently to help people learn the ropes on their way up the ladder.
“He's in a great place. He's in a great place, and you can see it. He's enjoying everything that he's doing. He came to my school just because he wanted to. He came back to, virtually, where he started. It's not the same location, but the same grassroots where he came from. When I asked him who he wanted to be in there with he said, ‘Bring your students. Bring me your people.' I didn't tell them he was coming. They were shocked as could be when they walked in,” Steel revealed.
“I just said, ‘Hey, we have extra practice this week. I think you guys should make it,' so they came. Extra training day, they came in, and they were all stunned. Coming back to professional wrestling, this is exactly the ideal situation. He has people that want to learn, he wants to teach. He wants to give them what was given to him. What was given to him by Eddie Guerrero. He has a different relationship with Harley (Race). Harley showed him how to make a blade. I never bladed for Harley. I told him, ‘No.' If there were 50 people, I wasn't doing it. He was making a blade, and Harley showed him. Eddie took him under his wing. There is Harley. There is Raven. He had the opportunity to work all of these people. Dusty (Rhodes).”
Say what you will about Punk's pursuits in NXT, but there's basically no reason he would show up at The Foundation of Pro Wrestling to help out Steel's students if he doesn't just genuinely enjoy the process. If that's the case, maybe he'd be an ideal addition to WWE developmental after all.
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