CM Punk Speaks on Using Paul Bearer’s Memory in Feud with Undertaker

The last WrestleMania CM Punk appeared on before leaving WWE was WrestleMania XXIX. He faced off against The Undertaker at the show in New Jersey and became the latest name to fall victim to the Undertaker Streak. Little did we know he’d be the last name before Undertaker lost, or that he’d skip the next eleven WrestleManias.

The memory of Paul Bearer became an important part of the feud with CM Punk & Undertaker. Bearer passed away in March 2013, just as the build between Punk & Undertaker was beginning. It made perfect sense for Punk, a master of mind games, to try & get to Undertaker by using his emotions over the death of his longtime manager & friend against him. As Punk said in a recent interview with Complex News, it could have been a tricky situation.

Punk On Using Paul Bearer’s Memory:

“I mean, it was heavy because while I knew Percy (Pringle, Paul Bearer’s earlier & later wrestling name), I didn’t know him or have a connection to him like a lot of people in the company did, like Undertaker did. So I was careful to make sure and his family members, I think his son signed off on it. Cause I was like, I don’t want to do this unless everybody’s okay with it. Because at that time, you know, my, my deal was being a bad guy and trying to just get people to pay to see me beat up. So I wasn’t sure if they were going to be agreeable to, to everything. Cause I, you know, once you give me the green light, like, ‘are you sure about this?’ Like, it’s going to be pretty heavy. I was told by people that were super close to him that he would have loved it, so I can just go by with their word. But yeah, it was- that’s one of those things. It’s like it’s a privilege and it’s an honor to be able to be respected enough to be handed this gift almost. It’s a shame that he died, obviously, but, to me, it’s the magic of what we do is we can pivot and use real life stuff, and kind of blur the line. I was grateful that I was allowed to be able to do that.”

Clearly everyone involved was ok with the angle, and based on what I’ve seen Paul Bearer say in shoot interviews he would have been fine with it as well. Guy loved being part of the show.

You can view Punk’s entire interview below.