CM Punk is just days away from his first televised one-on-one match in WWE in over a decade. WWE’s digital team caught up with Punk prior to Monday’s WWE Raw at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn.
We know that CM Punk has been spotted at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando several times over the past several months, but we haven’t seen much of him in the ring until now.
CM Punk Trains for SummerSlam
Punk reflects on starting his pro wrestling career in Minnesota 24 years ago as he tapes his wrists and prepares to move around. He says, “I’m going to give them a show tonight before we see the multi-time WWE & AEW Champion jump from the apron into the ring and run the ropes at a healthy pace.
He said, “arm feels great” as he smiled to the camera, a promising sign he’ll be in top shape this weekend.
CM Punk & Jesse Venutra
We then see new footage of CM Punk meeting WWE Hall of Famer Jesse “The Body” Ventura. Punk is shown telling Ventura that they met once about a decade ago and introducing himself again. He extended his hand and said, “CM Punk, Phil” and Ventura recalled, “Oh yeah, you’ve got that unique name. I always tried to figure that name out, how in the hell did you come up with a name like CM Punk?”
Punk agreed it’s a stupid name and said it was his nickname as a child, because he was a little brat kid. “Well, good for you, it served you a purpose then, you can’t forget it.”
Ventura later jokes, “When you get to be my age, you’re just another old man.”
During a separate conversation with with Jimmy Traina for the SI Media podcast, Punk commented on the surreal meeting with The Body:
“I saw Governor Ventura the other day, said Punk. Absolutely, 100% blown away, one of the coolest things that has ever happened to me in my life is when he tells me that he saw I came back, and he said, ‘The place must have changed. If Punk is back, I’ll go back.”