Newsday has a new interview up with WWE Intercontinental Champion CM Punk. Below are some of the highlights of the interview:
On headlining an MSG house show as world champion last summer: “There’s an old saying that goes, “Business goes where the Garden goes.” The Garden can make or break a guy. If they don’t like you – or conversely, if they do like you – it can change your career. So, to debut in the Garden a couple of months into my WWE career and having 18,000 people chanting my name to main eventing the Garden in a cage in just two short years, to me is mind boggling. It’s one of those things that I don’t think enough people talk about. I don’t like to toot my horn too much, but that’s pretty rad, when you step back and look at the whole thing.”
On ROH: “I’m proud to be able to say that I’m one of the guys that built that places – to just be able to say that that place is around because of me and handful of other guys. When times were tough, we were the guys who carried that place on our back – me, Samoa Joe, Homicide, Gabe Sapolsky. And of course there are countless others who are probably going to be mad that I didn’t mention them in this interview. But when you boil it down, we were the core guys. And I just love the fact that we built a place for guys to work and to learn. I’m very proud of that.”
On “The Wrestler”: “…The movie as a whole I loved. I’ve wrestled in every single one of those building that they had in the movie. The locker room scenes were just dead on, with the camaraderie with the boys and everything like that. I’ve done a lot of knuckle-headed things in my career in regards to people that I’ve cared about that I’ve pretty much lost touch with or ignored because of wrestling. So it kind of hit home.
On who he would like to have wrestled this year at WrestleMania: “I would love nothing more than to defend the IC title. I think the that’s something that has kind of lost its luster and I would love to be known as the guy who brought it back to the heights of like Bret Hart, Curt Hennig “Mr. Perfect,” hell even Tito Santana. You watch that Intercontinental title DVD that’s out, and it’s amazing those. Those are the guys hustling underneath. Shawn Michaels, Razor Ramon, Ricky Steamboat, Randy Savage. You throw my name into the hat with those guys. I want to be having the amazing matches. Honestly, my dream match at WrestleMania would be against Rey Mysterio for the IC title.”
On WWE’s new kid-friendly direction: “I think it’s great. I think the more kids the better, because that used to be me. I think the kids bring a different dynamic to it because they look at guys like Rey Mysterio and John Cena as super heroes. And when they come to the shows they can reach out and they can touch them. If anything it makes our job easier. The only thing we have to sell to these little kids is that it’s good vs. evil. And you cheer and you boo who you like and how you don’t like.”
BREAKING: Major WWE Star Just *SUSPENDED* Due To Failing Drug Test [>>]
