Former WWE Superstar CM Punk spoke with Dan Gelston of Associated Press this week to promote his MMA training and his eventual UFC debut, which is now expected to take place at UFC 199 in June.
“This is new to me. It’s not the same old boring (stuff) that I’ve been doing for God knows how long. People are talking about it. Some people are upset, some people love it, some people think it’s inspirational. I’m pretty sure everybody has an opinion on it.”
Punk made it no secret that he was burned out and fed up towards the end of his WWE run. Despite his own commitment to becoming an MMA fighter, he’s been met with doubters and critics who don’t think he’s in it for the long haul. Punk is embracing it all and plans to fight several times for the UFC, no matter how his debut goes.
“I didn’t move up to Milwaukee, I’m not training my ass off and getting hurt, going back into the gym just so I can one-and-done it,” Punk said. “This is what I do now.”
UFC President Dana White revealed this week that Punk will most likely be fighting at UFC 199 in June, not the company’s big UFC 200 show the following month. The reasoning for having Punk debut at 199 is that it would be much easier to determine Punk’s drawing power on a ‘secondary’ event. If Punk fights at UFC 200, there’s no way to know how much of an impact Punk’s debut had on the bottom line.
“There’s part of me that cares because UFC 200 is going to be a big deal,” Punk said. “I’ve spoken to Dana about it, trying to figure out what’s best for both parties. It’s just a smarter business decision.”
Head on over to our partner site MMANews.com for more coverage of CM Punk’s UFC training and the latest UFC news.
Posted January 16th, 2016 in News, WWE. Tagged: CM Punk.
There are some new developments in WWE’s Dr. Chris Amann’s lawsuit against former WWE Superstars CM Punk (Phil Brooks) and Colt Cabana (Scott Colton) stemming from comments made on the infamous “Art of Wrestling” podcast episode from November 2014.
To recap, Amann’s claim is that Punk & Cabana made statements about him on the podcast that were untrue and defamatory by improperly insinuating he lacked integrity and competence as a medical doctor. Specifically, Amann claims that Punk sullied his reputation by claiming Amann misdiagnosed a lump on his back as simply a ‘fatty deposit’ and ignored his requests to remove it, a deposit that Punk went on to claim ended up turning into life-threatening MRSA.
Amann denies Punk asked him to treat or remove a lump or anything off of his back, denies he examined Punk nor did he prescribe him any antibiotics. Amann also says Cabana aided in falsely depicting him as a lazy and/or incompetent doctor. His position is that both men knowingly fabricated the false and disparaging statements about him and is seeking in excess of $1 million in compensatory and punitive damages.
In the closing months of 2015, the two sides were going back and forth addressing the plaintiff’s attempts to squash Punk and Cabana’s defense pleadings. The court had ruled that some of the defense’s claims were inadmissible, which led to Punk and Cabana’s defense responding to the lawsuit with amended responses on December 15th.
In this filing, Punk argued that his comments on the podcast were his opinion and therefore should fall under the First Amendment of the Constitution (Free Speech). Additionally, he argued that his statements were “substantially true” – doubling down on his claim that Amann neglected to drain the lump on his lower back Punk and failed to diagnose it as a “potential MRSA or staph infection.” This is the most assertive Punk has been during the course of the lawsuit in identifying Dr. Amann by name as the person who he alleges provided him with reckless medical care.
Punk also alleged that he suffered “severe head trauma” in the Royal Rumble match (Punk’s final WWE match), but “Plaintiff did not direct or encourage [Punk] to leave the ring” and that “Plaintiff had indicated [that Punk] had discretion as to whether to remain in the ring.”
Amann alleges in his lawsuit that his privacy was violated on the “Art of Wrestling” podcast, but in the 12/15 filing, Punk’s camp responded that Amann was a public figure as a result of his job with WWE (including appearances on TV, on WWE.com, etc.) and the statements made about him on the podcast are fair game as a result.
The defense is pushing for a jury trial to determine the fate of the lawsuit. The next hearing is scheduled for February 1st.
Credit to Mike Johnson of PWInsider.com and our own David Bixenspan for assistance with the facts related to the December 15th filing.
As promised a few days ago, EA Sports has released a new gameplay trailer which showcases some of the major changes implemented in the upcoming EA Sports UFC 2, which comes out on March 15th and is available fore pre-order. The trailer, which is embedded above, focuses on the following aspects of the game:
Physics-based hit reactions and knockouts, which replace the canned animations from the first game. While physics-based, it’s tailored to realistic reactions to how strikes landing would affect the body, so there are no wacky rag doll physics.
Defense has been changed in two major ways: Unlike the first game, where the “weak block” automatically blocked everything and only “strong block” was about blocking high or low, now all blocking is based on blocking high or low. That means that there’s always a part of the body open to attack and everyone has to play much more cerebrally. In addition, the head movement has been changed to Fight Night-style 360 degree head movement.
Grappling is no longer turn-based like all previous MMA games. This is the deepest look we’ve gotten so far at the new grappling system, and it seems really promising.
While the first game got mixed reviews, it seems as if EA Sports is trying to address all f the complaints. Players hated auto-block, and now it’s gone, for example.
Posted January 12th, 2016 in News, WWE. Tagged: CM Punk.
– MMANews.com has a new article looking at the new EA Sports UFC video game, which is scheduled to be released in the Spring of 2016. In the article, it is noted that former WWE Superstar CM Punk is included in the roster for the game.
– WWE Superstar Rusev celebrates his 30th birthday today. “The Bulgarian Brute” was born on December 25, 1985. Also celebrating birthdays today are former TNA Knockout Rhaka Khan (34) and former WWE and TNA star Chris “Braden Walker” Harris (42).
– E! Online recently spoke with WWE Diva Rosa Mendes about her move to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with fiancee’ Bobby Schubenski this weekend. During the discussion, Rosa also spoke about her WWE family checking in on her while she has been away pregnant. “It’s really cool that all the Divas have been calling me and checking up on me,” said Rosa. “Everyone’s just been so great!” Check out the complete article at EOnline.com.
With the recent downturn in WWE’s viewership and the overall quality of the product, a lot of ideas have been tossed around regarding how to improve the situation. One fan on Twitter reached out to CM Punk and said WWE would probably be willing to offer him $50 million to return. While WWE would almost certainly love to have Punk back in the fold, the Second City Saint doesn’t sound too interested.
Punk is currently in the midst of a lawsuit with WWE’s Dr. Chris Amann for comments made during the Colt Cabana Art Of Wrestling podcast that dropped around Thanksgiving 2014. He continues to train with Duke Roufus’ MMA camp in Milwaukee and is expected to make his UFC debut next summer.
The crew at WrestlingDVDNetwork.com continued their week of match reveals for the upcoming NXT’s Greatest Matches Vol. 1 DVD and Blu-Ray set today by announcing that these three will be included:
NXT Championship Finals: Seth Rollins vs. Jinder Mahal (NXT August 29, 2012)
Ladder Match for the NXT Championship: Bo Dallas vs. Adrian Neville (NXT ArRival February 27, 2014)
NXT Championship Match: Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens (NXT Takeover: Rival February 11, 2015)
The folks at WrestlingDVDNetwork.com are announcing new matches for the upcoming NXT’s Greatest Matches Vol. 1 DVD and Blu-Ray set this week. Today’s matches include quite the notable one: A 2012 dark match featuring CM Punk & Seth Rollins vs. Antonio Cesaro & Kassius Ohno (Chris Hero). This match is probably the last time Punk and Hero, who had a famous feud in IWA Mid-South, will ever wrestle each other.
Last month (10/17), CM Punk attended a screening of the Roddy Piper cult classic movie They Live at the Sun Ray Theater in Jacksonville, FL. CM Punk did a Q&A and touched upon a number of topics, including Piper’s acting career, starring in a horror movie with his wife AJ, Donald Trump and more. Youtube user Slotjawgot a bunch of videos from the event that are worth checking out.
Punk was asked about how often he watches wrestling and said he hasn’t watched a full show in years. Kofi Kingston was recently at his home and he thinks the New Day act is a brilliant act because it’s obvious the guys are having fun and fans catch on because it is infectious. He added:
“The key element in being successful there is you have to reach the point where you just don’t give a f*ck”
Posted November 22nd, 2015 in News, WWE. Tagged: CM Punk.
Welcome back to the SEScoops Mailbag. After the questions below, we’ve answered everything sent in so far. If you’ve got a question you want answered here, send an email to SEScoops@gmail.comwith “Mailbag” as the subject line. Let’s roll:
Buzzard follower asks … Since survivor series is sort of like deadly games part 2 (1998 ss) what do you think about roman like the rock will turn heel and join the authority the way rock did with the corporation? also what do you think if the finalist are ambrose and roman when/if the heel turn goes down
Brad Davis: Reigns turning heel, joining The Authority and winning the WWE title like The Rock did at Deadly Game is the best possible booking scenario for Survivor Series. Rollins is out for the better part of a year and now The Authority is without a main event guy in their camp. It makes sense to have a heel champion as we close out the year and round the corner into WrestleMania season.
Reigns winning the title as babyface would be anti-climatic and he’s just simply not over enough where a babyface title win could propel him to that “new face of the company” status. They’ve been trying for well over a year to get him over as the new top babyface. The only chance Reigns has to be “the next John Cena” is to turn him heel and let him come into his own in that role before an eventual babyface turn years down the road.
And yes, Reigns’ big turn should come in the finals against Dean Ambrose. Reigns’ turn wouldn’t have as big of an impact as it would if Dean was the guy he was screwing over. The two have them been buddying around on WWE TV for the past few months and can feud for the next several months until after the Royal Rumble when Reigns’ WrestleMania challenger is lined up.
UltraManTits Black asks … Im of the belief that Asuka has a much better chance of one day being the Divas champ than Hideo does of being WWE champ because the Divas are less focused on promos than the men are and the language barrier will keep Hideo from being in a main event. Do you think its better for a foreign born wrestler to hook up with a manager to do their talking for them, or to just go the Lucha Dragons’ route and stay silent?
A Realist: I am of the belief that knowing the character and the motivation of a character goes a long way in getting talent over. Otherwise, why should I cheer for this guy or girl? Now, not everyone needs to speak, but they certainly need something else to get the audience to stand behind. If you’re not establishing a certain appeal to the voiceless character, such as say, Goldberg’s streak, then they need something else to back them up–and that’s the ‘why are you here?’. Wrestling is not all about wrestling, after all.
Let’s just put it this way: despite his losses, there’s a reason Bray Wyatt is still a main attraction. Why Dean Ambrose is so over. The reason for 2011, the summer of Punk. The current reason why New Day is the hottest act in WWE. They can talk.
And then there’s a reason why people like the Lucha Dragons, and Cesaro are spinning their tires.
So the long-short–yes, I believe mouthpieces are more than beneficial to talents that are unable to speak for themselves.
Mr. Honesty asks … I see this tournament as the perfect opportunity to build some stars. Not necessarily on the main event card, but it might create guys that’ll prove to be upper midcard material. That being said, who do you see as someone that might emerge as a top midcard guy? Any surprising superstars come to mind?
David Bixenspan: So far, it doesn’t look like anyone is being moved up that much more. Cesaro feels like the guy who could benefit most even on losing, but you know how that goes with him. Ambrose probably could gain some forward momentum with a turn, since WWE badly needs a new top heel more than anything else. Which is to say hopefully he’ll go back to where he would have been if he turned on The Shield instead of Seth Rollins. It looked like he would turn heel en route to being an even bigger babyface down the line, but of course that didn’t happen.
That said, as the bracket sits, it looks like Reigns vs. Ambrose is the natural finals, with one or the other turning. And I’m not sure they have the wherewithal to book the other matches to be beneficial to anyone else.
Sunil asks … 1. Did cm punk really poop in the ring and did the ref really grab it? 2. Why doesn’t wwe use custom sets anymore?
A Realist: 1) Well, he for sure pooped himself–according to him. It was during a Smackdown episode match against Dean Ambrose. He claims that he was on so many antibiotics that he let ‘er rip in his trunks.
As for the ref picking it up, that is widely speculated on, as many believe it was a piece of Ambrose’s Shield gear that he actually moved. I personally have a hard time believing he grabbed it barehanded, considering they have latex gloves in their pockets at all times now, due to accidental bleeding from the wrestlers.
2) I assume by ‘custom sets’, you mean the Pay Per View specific arena sets. If so, two reasons:
One: Money, plain and simple. Those sets weren’t cheap.
Two: They use a giant set for Wrestlemania every year. If every PPV has a custom set, that detracts from the importance of the ‘grandest stage’ that is Wrestlemania.
Undertaker316 asks… Do you think the Authority story line has run its course?
Brad Davis: Assuming that you are asking if The Authority angle is ‘tired and stale,’ the storyline has certainly run its course. As much as Triple H and Stephanie have established their characters on WWE TV as major heels, it’s still the “Evil Authority Figure” angle that worked for a few years during the Monday Night Wars era and has been carbon-copied to death over the past decade by WWE and TNA. WWE needs a complete overhaul and the alarmingly low RAW viewership week after week backs this up. In the event that WWE would shake up the presentation of their product from top the bottom, I don’t see where there is a place for overbearing heel authority figures that soak up all the TV time, place themselves as the focal point of the WWE Universe, belittle andliterally slap around the wrestlers.
If you are asking “will WWE be concluding the Authority storyline soon?” – then the answer is obviously not. Triple H and Stephanie will be fixtures on WWE television for years to come. If you want to continue following along week after week, you’ve got two choices – you can sell out or you can buy in.
Got a question you want answered here in the SEScoops Mailbag? Send it over to SEScoops@gmail.com.
FOX Sports is currently working on a documentary-style series about CM Punk. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that the series about the former WWE champion will air on FOX Sports 1. CM Punk’s final appearance in WWE was at the Royal Rumble in January, 2014.
The series will profile CM Punk training to become an MMA fighter, and recovering from his shoulder injury that set back his UFC debut.
Punk is currently looking at Spring 2016 for his first fight. There’s no word on who his opponent will be, or when the docu-series will air.
– WWE.com is running a poll asking fans to vote on who they feel is the true leader of Team B.A.D. With over 3,000 votes cast, Sasha Banks is leading the poll with 74 percent of the vote, while Naomi has 18 percent and Tamina has 8 percent.
– Samoa Joe was at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on Thursday for the WrestleMania 32 ticket party. Joe tweeted a photo of the WrestleMania 32 logo on the massive screen inside the stadium with the caption, “the road begins here” #WrestleMania. Joe’s longtime rival and friend CM Punk responded, reminding Joe that WWE loves when you point at the WrestleMania sign.
@SamoaJoe make sure to point at the sign. They really like that.
Biff Busick and Rich Swann made their NXT live event debuts in Gainesville, Florida in a Halloween costume battle royal. NXT Women’s Champion Bayley, who was dressed up as a Lego, ended up winning the battle royal.
It’s worth mentioning that NXT Champion Finn Balor appeared to be dressed up as CM Punk, with a Dolph Ziggler hoodie on, while Aiden English dressed up as current WWE Intercontinental Champion Kevin Owens.
Despite separating himself from wrestling after leaving WWE in January of 2014, former WWE champion CM Punk made a wrestling-related appearance this weekend.
Punk paid tribute to WWE Hall of Famer “Rowdy” Roddy Piper by memorializing him at a screening of Piper’s film They Live. Piper passed away on July 31 at the age of 61. Here’s what Punk had to say about the screening on Twitter:
Had the privilege of memorializing @R_Roddy_Piper tonight during a screening of 'They Live' at the @sunraycine Was amazing.I miss ya Hotrod.
– NXT Diva Jasmin Areebi is now going by the name Aaliyah. She appeared in a segment at the NXT live event on Thursday night in Cocoa Beach. Areebi was in the news this summer after some of her old controversial social media posts resurfaced. WWE and Areebi claimed that the posts were made by someone else.
– Legendary Memphis wrestling announcer Lance Russell and Pro Wrestling Illustrated’s Dan Murphy will be the guests on next week’s “Ross Report” podcast, which drops on Tuesday evening at PodcastOne.com.
– Below is this week’s Top 10 SmackDown Moments video.
Former WWE Divas Champion and wife of WWE mega-star turned UFC hopeful CM Punk, AJ Lee, has officially launched “AJ’s Animal Avenger” collection, which in conjunction with the “Beautiful Disaster” clothing company, features four t-shirts and one shirt for dogs.
Proceeds of “AJ’s Animal Avenger” collection will go to the “PAWS” charity based out of Chicago. You can check out AJ’s new collection at BDRocks.
The aforementioned Beautiful Disaster Clothing company made the following announcement:
AJ reached out to Beautiful Disaster Clothing, a long-time favorite brand of hers, to collaborate on creating an exciting clothing line to benefit PAWS Chicago.
“Beautiful Disaster represents society’s misunderstood rebels – strong, brave women and men who have overcome adversity and shout their individuality from the rooftops.
Together, PAWS Chicago and Beautiful Disaster are the perfect match!” she said. PAWS Chicago is grateful for the partnership, which will directly help save the lives of homeless pets.
“This past February, I was home healing from a surgery and was struggling to keep a positive attitude. I needed a purpose greater than throwing a daily pity party for myself,” said Brooks. “I’ve been a rescue dog mom several times and occasionally found comfort in scrolling through pictures of animals on various adoption center websites, just to fantasize about adding to the family. Then I found my guy on pawschicago.org.”
She continues, “The second I saw his face, pointy bat-like ears, soulful eyes, pronounced under bite, hilariously messy hair, with a bit of an attitude problem to boot – I knew I had found the one. I excitedly showed my husband [UFC Fighter, CM Punk] and he immediately fell in love. We both had a deep connection to this mutty misfit. A few days later the little Wolfman, we named Larry Talbot, was a member of the family and helped nurse me back to health. Our little guy has endured such a hard past but is nothing but gracious and loving. He has brought so much happiness into our home that I wanted to find a way to give back to the amazing people who took care of our furry baby before we could.”
Shortly after being suspended by WWE for violating the company’s Wellness Policy, Hornswoggle was seen in a video falling down some stairs at the wedding of former WWE Superstar Curt Hawkins (Brian Myers). The video was uploaded by former WWE champ CM Punk.
Former TMZ producer Ryan Satin of ProWrestlingSheet.com reports that the whole video was a work and planned ahead of time. Hornswoggle was being introduced at the wedding by legendary WWE announcer Howard Finkel before he falls down the stairs on purpose in order to get a rise from the guests.
Ex-WWE champ turned UFC fighter CM Punk’s new Marvel comic series “Drax” will hit shelves on November 4th. Drax follows the adventures of the Guardians of the Galaxy team member of the same name. This is the same character Batista famously played in the Guardians of the Galaxy movie.
Punk made his debut as comic book writer back in February, with the release of a story partially written by him in Thor Annual Vol 4 #1.
Marvel released the premise of the first issue of his new series today:
“Drax the Destroyer is the muscle for the Guardians of the Galaxy, but what does he do when he’s not adventuring through space with the Guardians? He lets his bloodthirsty quest for revenge take the pilot seat, of course! Determined to find and kill Thanos once and for all, Drax is ready to take on the universe. But when you’re tooling around the universe in a ship aptly named “The Space Sucker”, an unwavering desire for bloodshed isn’t enough to keep a mission from derailing. Drax crash lands into his wildest adventures ever, encountering foes no one will ever expect! The depths of space may not be big enough to contain this much grit, vengeance and all-out action!”
Here’s a look at the cover of Drax #1:
Posted October 12th, 2015 in News, WWE. Tagged: CM Punk.
WWE has partnered up with the Susan G. Komen foundation once again to raise money for the fight against breast cancer. Just prior to Monday’s RAW, Punk went on a rant about the Komen organization, calling them a scam and encouraging fans to do research about where the money they donate is going.
For those unaware, Komen has been under fire for years because such a small percentage of the money they raise (close to 20%) actually goes to breast cancer research and treatments while their executives collect big salaries. Punk tweeted:
If you're going to give money to a company that claims to raise money for finding a cure for cancer, please do some research.Komen is a scam
CM Punk suffered a shoulder injury while training that will keep him out of action for around a month, according to a report at ESPN.
Duke Roufus told ESPN.com, “He got caught in a scramble, so right now he’s taking a little time off. He was doing great before that. His progress has been good. He’s got a great attitude and he’s a hard worker. He got a place in Milwaukee where he lives all week when he’s here training, so he’s in it to win it.”
Roufus says they’re now looking at Spring 2016 for Punk’s first fight and we should know who the opponent is within the next few months.
– The New Day reacted to what happened with The Dudley Boyz at Saturday night’s WWE Network special from Madison Square Garden in New York City. The New Day ended up making Kyle Edwards walk away from the interview with a box over his head. Video below:
– During a No Disqualification Match against Roman Reigns at last night’s WWE live event in Bangor, Maine, Bray Wyatt suffered bad cuts to his head and hand. It was reported that the hand injury came from a kendo stick shot where his trainers attempted to tape Wyatt up and continue the match. Ultimately, Bray lost the match. Below are tweets obtained from reporter Jon Alba:
Bray Wyatt's head busted open the hard way here at #WWEBangor. No DQ match with Reigns. Doctors out but he's good. #WWE
After ProWrestlingTees.com launched an online T-shirt outlet for Jim Neidhart yesterday, the company said this afternoon that WWE has attempted to block the shirts from being sold due to its “exclusive merchandise contract” with him.
WWE says Jim Neidhart cant sell his own shirts. They don't own his name nor Hart Foundation, YET HE CANNOT SELL HIS OWN TEES? So Classy WWE
– CM Punk and AJ Lee are starring in a movie together. According to mbnnewsvideoweb.com, the former WWE Superstars will co-star in Hellstorm, an action-horror motion picture. The plot is as follows:
After the collapse of the world’s financial system and a devastating world war, a group of mismatched survivors are forced to band together and battle a variety of unexplainable and horrific beasts that descend on their tiny makeshift community.
The film also stars Mat Fraser (American Horror Story), Colleen Camp (American Hustle), Selene Luna (My Bloody Valentine), Kate Hodge (Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III) and Brian Goff (BorderCross). Shooting begins in mid-November in Ohio.
– NXT Women’s Champion Bayley will be part of WWE’s upcoming tour of the United Kingdom in November. She is advertised for the Nov. 8 show in Liverpool, England and the Nov. 12 event in Newcastle.
– Former WWE Superstar Maven will be wrestling this Saturday for Lucky Pro Wrestling at the Elks Hall 34 Powder Mill Rd. Maynard, Massachusetts. He is teaming with former WWE Superstar Curt Hawkins, now known as “The Prince of Queens” Brian Myers, as they take on The Cam-An Connection. Click here for event details.
Paige recently took part in a Q&A at the Wizard World Comic Con in San Jose, California and among other things, Paige spoke about whether she thought Nikki Bella breaking AJ Lee’s record was a personal shot at CM Punk, as well as her towel angle from RAW several weeks ago.
Regarding the Bella record-breaking reign being a shot at AJ Lee and/or Punk, Paige offered the following response.
“Oh, I don’t think so. Don’t get me involved in this! I don’t need that heat, brother,” Paige said. “I don’t know. I have no idea. I don’t get involved in that crap.”
As far as the angle on RAW where she was wearing a towel because The Bella Twins stole her clothes, Paige was asked if she was really naked under the towel.
“That was legit live, guys. I had to run through the hallways in just a towel. I never thought I would be on RAW in just a towel.” Paige continued, “it had to go live, so Vince was like, ‘if she drops the towel everyone on the set is fired’ and I was like, ‘oh, it’s so much pressure’.”
