The subject of retirement has come up more and more during interviews with current WWE Champion CM Punk. He's been rather open on the matter, consistently maintaining his stance that he doesn't want to wear out his welcome like so many others before him.
Retirements in pro wrestling are widely considered a joke. Punk doesn't want that to be true in his case.
He's teased leaving soon but in an interview with Comcast, he simply revealed he's "passed the middle point of my career for sure." That could mean a lot of things but most important, he still has goals he would like to accomplish before riding off into the sunset.
"I kind of want to make a few guys and girls," he said. "And I think I've done a little bit of that with AJ (Lee). I want to make sure there's a future for the wrestling business when I leave. I want to make sure there are people that fill that void."
That's admirable, certainly. It's also tradition. A pro wrestler who is leaving a company (or the business altogether) gives the rub to an up-and-coming star or even just a wrestler who is sticking with the company. Simple and straight forward.
Ego is a powerful thing, however, and it often takes a massive sense of self-importance to succeed in the industry. As you can clearly tell, Punk has that. His taking credit for "making" AJ shows as much. I'll leave it up to you Cagesiders to decide if you think that's true or not, though I would strongly disagree.
Still, it's good to see Punk has his head in the right place, at least in regards to how he wants to leave, whenever that may be.