CM Punk Recalls Putting His ‘Punkanomics’ Rap Together, Says It Was ‘A Lot of Research’

On the episode of WWE Smackdown before Night of Champions, CM Punk surprised everyone by dressing as John Cena. He came out as the Doctor of Punkanomics and proceeded to cut a Cena-style rap on the Undisputed WWE Champion. The two would face each other the next night, in a match that Cena won. In an interview with Comic Book Nation (via Fightful), Punk spoke about how much work he put into the rap and how much research it took to put together.

He said: “It was a lot of research. I watched a lot of John’s delivery. His cadence and how he talks. A good friend of mine by the name of Jensen Karp, who is, to me, a battle rap master. That is what he does. It’s his lane. I definitely leaned on him. ‘This is what we’re doing.’ I could do this myself, but it was really his wheelhouse, so I kind of handed the ball to him. He helped me greatly, along with another friend of ours, Rone. The genesis of the idea was, everybody is expecting this pipebomb 2 from me. I’m not into delivering sequels to stuff that don’t need sequels. For 14 years people have been chasing this moment and trying to replicate it, duplicate it, talk like me, sit like me. I’m not so much into doing the same thing. I couldn’t have even followed myself. How is that for a supremely egotistical comment? Everyone is expecting me to zig, so I zag. That was the idea with it. Really, just having fun. That entire week was pretty emotional for me, being the last time I was going to get to share a ring with John Cena. I wanted to make it special and memorable. I find that when I challenge myself and put myself outside my comfort zone, that’s when the best stuff happens. People are going to remember that, whether it’s because of the delivery, the content, the way I was dressed, the atmosphere. I think it was a hell of a moment.“