CM Punk Says He'd Be "Just Another Guy" If He Went Back To WWE
CM Punk sat down with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated to talk about several upcoming acting projects. One of them was a role in the upcoming Starz series Heels, a TV show about pro wrestling starring Stephen Amell. Punk revealed that his character is inspired by a certain pro wrestler, though he won't reveal who.
"We just wrapped on season one," Punk said. "I'm going to wait for the producers to release the name of my character, but I play a wrestler—and they gave me the parameters, then I was able to mold the character into my own.
"This is a guy that I've shared locker rooms with. I'm sure wrestling fans will watch this show and they'll, at various points, be able to point at me and go, 'He's doing this guy now.' It's really my love letter to one person specifically, and I don't want to mention who it is. I want people to enjoy it as it organically happens."
Punk is incredibly excited about the show and working with Amell, who himself has wrestled previously for WWE, Ring of Honor and at the All In show in 2019. He believes it will be an authentic presentation of the wrestling business.
"It was a real treat to be a part of that show," Punk revealed. "Everybody was great. They appreciated me being there to lend an authenticity to the show.
"Hollywood will sometimes offend wrestling fans by taking their liberties with wrestling and not capturing the right spirit. But everybody really poured their heart into the show, in a way that they don't want to offend wrestling fans. There's good entertainment, there's bad entertainment. I try to do the projects I think are good."
Of course, no Punk interview is complete without him being asked about a potential return to pro wrestling. While Punk didn't 100% dismiss the possibility, he also doesn't seem to be too keen on the idea, especially in regards to a WWE return.
"I don't know," Punk says. "I've said no before in interviews. I'm not fishing for a deal. I get offered to do a lot of stuff, and I say no to 90% of it just because my thing is I need to work with quality human beings. It just seems like maybe in pro wrestling there is a lack of quality human beings.
"I don't know. I like doing fun, quality projects. If there is a fun, quality wrestling project that gets sent my way, I will listen to it."
"I don't need the money. And the way the wrestling business is now, it's wacky. You've got WWE, who has multiple billion-dollar television deals, and the television's awful. I go back there, I'm just another guy.
"And it's not even that—I'd be just another guy that's doing not-good television. I want to do stuff that's good. I want my name attached to quality projects, where it's fun and it makes people laugh, smile, think and people don't hate watching it. I want to do fun stuff."