CM Punk gets a lot of hate from pro wrestling fans for being difficult to work with, but that ain’t so according to UFC CEO Dana White.
Punk has always portrayed himself as an indy pro wrestling outsider, even after spending nearly a decade inside the machine that is the WWE. It’s always tough to tell how much of his friction with the promotion was legit or just for show, but things got so bad by the end of his run in 2014 that he accused the promotion of nearly working him to death thru medical negligence.
In 2021, Punk would return to wrestling after an unsuccessful stint in the UFC. He joined AEW, only to get released by the company in August 2023 after two backstage incidents. He’d then stage a surprise comeback in WWE, appearing at the most recent Survivor Series in November. It was unthinkable! Just weeks before, the WWE had been pretty eeeeeh about signing Punk because of all the drama. Now they were back in bed with him?
interview with Sports Illustrated, Dana White had nothing but praise for the pro wrestler whose real name is Phil Brooks.
“I’ve had nothing but a great relationship with him since the day we met,” White said. “He’s a super nice guy. He’s one of the easiest people I’ve ever dealt with.”
It took Punk years to get from signing with the UFC to actually stepping in the cage. The end result? A 0-2 run with losses to Mickey Gall and Mike Jackson.
“Look, those were tough fights,” White explained. “You know what else is important? Everybody that he trained with and everybody around him in his camp respected him. That spoke volumes.”
It’s true that Punk’s name stayed out of the dirtsheets while he was prepping for his UFC run. He only seems to have problems when dealing with the madhouse that is pro wrestling. Will that continue in the WWE on his current run? Who knows, but White will be following along.
“I texted him that night after he walked out in Chicago,” he said. “It was amazing. I texted and congratulated him, it was incredible.”
