Stephan Bonnar Talks About Transitioning Into Pro Wrestling

In an interview with The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast, Stephan Bonnar spoke about moving into pro wrestling, CM Punk’s UFC promos and more. Here are highlights:

On his move into pro wrestling: “Dave Bautista did an MMA fight and I helped him train MMA and here he is WWE’s Dave Bautista and now he’s doing the Guardians of The Galaxy movies now but a few years back and just like with me with pro wrestling pretty soon I’d be too old to try it and he wanted to train for an MMA fight and we put together a training camp. But I had never done it. I got invited to do this Smash Mouth Pro Wrestling show on April 8th in Valpraiso, Indiana right next to my hometown of Munsey and I got to go home and see my family go there and do a battle royal and it was fun. The promoter Jeremy wants to have me back and I told him that I just started training and after I did that show and battle royal match I went to a pro wrestling gym and really started training. For me it is so much harder. Yesterday, I went to an MMA gym and sparred a little and that is like walking for me. This stuff is more like dancing whereas fighting is more freestyle rap, this is like a little dance that with choreographed moves and maybe it is just easier for me to go in there and fight and spar and make sh*t up as I go along but they say with the old time wrestlers that is how they did it.”

On getting bored with MMA: “It is fascinating and hearing all these old stories and I am watching old matches and it is kind of fun. I am learning again and mentally I am stimulated. When you fight for so long and like I said it is like walking and you go in and spar and don’t think about it and since this is new it is stimulating and you need that. I was going into to workouts at MMA gyms and just thought what am I doing? I am sick of this and I retired so what is the point? Now I go there to get some sparring, get a sweat on, good cardio and stimulate my mind by learning to pro wrestle and that is where I escape to.”

On CM Punk’s MMA debut: “I am a huge CM Punk fan and you’d think he is one of the best guys all time on the mic and his promo skills are second to none yet in MMA and I’m not saying this to be disrespectful but he is just boring. I think he can still be respectful and entertaining and cut MMA promos about tuning into his upcoming fight and what people can expect. I looked forward to seeing what CM Punk had to say about his upcoming fight and I was like good God that was boring. He doesn’t have to be over the top or be “pro wrestling” and turn “heel” and be disrespectful but I was disappointed because he’s got more than that. But he is new and I am sure if he did MMA ten more years he would loosen up. It was tough what he did. Even Brock Lesnar had the sense to take a couple of tune up fights before the UFC because it is a tall task for anyone. Honestly, what would the UFC even do with him? Unless they match him up with someone like a Phil Baroni who would be the perfect fight for him. He got a 25 year old guy that was 6-0 or something and that is not the best fight for him.”

On his dream matches: “Once again back to Phil Baroni and I was doing an interview with him and got the same question. It is getting the WWE World Heavyweight Title so it is Brock Lesnar, Bobby Lashley, Barnett is doing it now so those are all three dream matches.”