CM Punk Reveals Long-Standing Battle With Vertigo During Matches

CM Punk has revealed that he still deals with recurring bouts of vertigo from a skull fracture suffered early in his wrestling career.

The injury happened during a Jersey Championship Wrestling match against Reckless Youth in 2002. Punk was sidelined for roughly two and a half months afterward.

Punk discussed the issue during a recent appearance on Hot Ones: Extra Heat. He recalled suffering the fracture in 2002 and compared the sensation to dice rattling inside a cup when shaken. (via Fightful)

“I fractured my skull once. This is the one that reoccurs every once in a while because after I fractured my skull, I developed vertigo really bad. Also, one I haven’t talked about too much because you talk about that and people kind of look at you. The doctors, they’ll be like, ‘Hmm.’ What happened was I fractured my skull and there was some bones in your inner ear that help with equilibrium. Those basically were like dice inside a cup and got rattled around and thrown around.”

The issue has also affected CM Punk during his wrestling matches. He revealed that he had performed while experiencing vertigo without fans knowing what was happening.

“Sometimes, those still get knocked loose. If I lay down and look straight up, the world spins. So, there’s been a lot of matches that you see that a lot of people are impressed with where I’m full on going through a bout of vertigo and I don’t know what’s going on.”

He also joked about the condition while discussing a recent WWE match. During his SummerSlam bout against Cody Rhodes, Punk performed a crooked moonsault.

“I will also now blame the crookedness of my moonsault of my vertigo.”

The Hot Ones: Extra Heat episode, which also features Liv Morgan and Charlotte Flair, is now streaming on Netflix.

Punk mentioning his Crooked Moonsault from SummerSlam 😂 pic.twitter.com/wD2on0zgFF

— Teffo (@Teffo_01) September 15, 2026