CM Punk was asked about the match where he really started to put things together as a wrestler during an Instagram Live session for Elite Comics and Kulture City. Punk’s response was as follows:
“Oh God, a match? A match where I kind of figured things out? I really don’t know. I’d really have to think about it and maybe working with Rey Mysterio and Eddie (Guerrero) for the first time. We famously did a three-way in like a — I don’t know. It was like a school gymnasium somewhere in Indianapolis or it was somewhere in Indiana or something like that for IWA (Mid-South). It was when Eddie was in between jobs. Rey, WCW had just kind of folded. Rey was one of the guys that was not signing with WWE right away and that one kind of put me on the map, but it also gave a lot of stuff that — I knew I wasn’t as good as I thought I was at that moment, you know? Working with pros like Rey and Eddie and so, it just kind of set me down the path of there’s a whole new bar for me after working with these guys and I have to try to reach to get to it, you know?
And then working with Rey when I got called up to the main roster, the Straight Edge Society stuff especially, you can compare and contrast CM Punks from those two different time periods and getting to work with Rey so frequently really felt like a level up, because that was like my litmus test. I could use Rey as a comparison. Like okay, I was here when I worked Rey last time. Now I’m here and then being trusted enough to work with John Cena pretty much every day, every night for quite some time. We were married to each other and it was always a night off and it was always easy and when you’re tasked with working with the guy who pretty much is the engine that makes the company go at that point, it’s kind of just like, okay, I figured it out then. I was like, alright, I know. They trust me enough and I’m not gonna do anything stupid, I’m not gonna hurt the guy. It’s always good and it’s quality and it was fun and it was different and they trusted me to keep it different and it wasn’t the same thing all the time.”
(quote courtesy of PostWrestling.com)
