CM Punk Comments On Growing Up In Chicago As Wrestling Fan & John Cena’s Upcoming Retirement

Reigning WWE World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk recently appeared on Chef Donny’s What’s For Lunch YouTube show, where he opened up about growing up in Chicago as a wrestling fan, John Cena’s impending retirement, and more.

The Best in the World revealed that he initially started wrestling with his friends in his backyard. After realizing that the quality of the wrestling scene in Chicago was not up to scratch, Punk started building his own rings, but they would get destroyed over the winter. He eventually bought a ring from one of his friends and then went to a school for training.

“I started just goofing up in my backyard with my friends. Because this is what I wanted to do, and it did not—this is pre-internet, so it did not compute that there were wrestling schools or [that] I had to get trained to do this. So it was just me and my friends just goofing off. To say that the quality of the wrestling scene in Chicago when I started was subpar would be possibly being too nice. So it was like, we would go to these local shows, and we’d just be like, ‘F**k man!’ Maybe a bad attitude, but we were like, ‘Man, we’re better than this.’ We’d build our own rings. They’d get destroyed over the winter because of the weather and everything like that. And then, eventually, I bought a ring from a guy in Texas. He drove it up and just like dropped it in the front yard of my parents’ house. And it was just like, ‘Alright!’ I knew I wanted to get serious about it and do it. So, uh, I went and got trained at a school. Before I knew it, I was wrestling every weekend, and it just kind of expanded from that.”

During the conversation, CM Punk was asked to comment on his iconic rival, John Cena’s, upcoming retirement from the squared circle. The current World Heavyweight Champion recounted their journey together and added that it’s amazing for him to see Cena gracefully take his exit from the world of pro wrestling.

“Cena started on the main roster a few years before me, but we both did go to when developmental was in Louisville, Kentucky. That’s where me and him started our WWE careers. So when I got called him, he was already exploding. He was already like the biggest thing. But to see him, you know, throughout his career, and now he’s so gracefully, like, taking a bow and exiting, like, it’s amazing. It’s fun just to be along for the ride.

Check out the conversation below:

Please credit Chef Donny’s YouTube channel and give an H/T to 411Mania for the transcription if you take quotes from this article.