We still don’t how often CM Punk will appear on WWE Backstage, but if his first night on the show left you wanting more of Punk’s takes on the wrestling and WWE, you didn’t have to wait long. The new Fox employee is willing to talk graps on other programs owned by the multimedia giant. And that’s what he did as a guest on Colin Cowherd’s radio/streaming sports talker The Herd this afternoon.
Some key excerpts...
On whether he’s “back” with WWE:
“Well, I’m not ‘back.’ I work with you now. I’m a FOX employee. You don’t work for the NFL? [Cowherd says he’s in conjunction with the NFL] Right, so I guess I’m in conjunction. I’m WWE adjacent.”
On why he’s not worried about upsetting anyone at WWE with his analysis on Backstage:
“I’m not concerned about it and I think that’s honestly the appeal of the job. ‘Were going to pay you to come here and be an analyst and you get to critique the old place that you work at.’ I’m not here just to be a spoiler and here to pour gasoline on anything to set everything on fire. I think deep down I love pro wrestling, and I think it could be better, and I always voiced my concerns and criticisms while I worked there, and now I don’t work there, and now I can’t get in trouble for it.”
On what’s wrong with the WWE product, and how it can be improved:
“I think everything - It’s pro wrestling. It’s supposed to be a little bit dirty, a little bit grimy. I think everything is overproduced. And I think if I can draw a correlation to the NFL, I think it’s almost the same across the board. Look at Time Square and what it used to be across the street and what it is now. And now, it’s just like this giant thing where it’s just like overproduced and these flashing lights, and I feel like I’m going to have a seizure when I walk down there, you know? Now, they do that with everything, and I think the NFL to an extent is almost the same thing. The referees. What’s a pass interference call? What’s a roughing call now? They’re throwing flags on everything, and it’s just like, let the guys play football. And I feel the same way about WWE. Let them wrestle. Let the men and the women be themselves and let them develop their own character.
It goes back to let people breathe. Let people be themselves. Let people be less scripted. If everybody is speaking from one voice, one person is writing the script, all the dialogue is the same from just one person, it’s just that, it’s one voice.”
Punk also tells a great story about knowing he was “screwed” when fans at Survivor Series in 2006 were chanting for him over his tag teammates The Hardyz and D-X, because that wasn’t the reaction WWE wanted.
Check it out. He’s got opinions a lot of us agree with, and it’ll tide you over until next week.