![]() WWE officially announces Roman Reigns’ match for the 2023 Money in the Bank PLE.Angelo Dawkins addresses talk of The Street Profits potentially breaking up as a tag team in WWE.CM Punk seemingly makes reference to The Young Bucks during AEW Collision’s debut.Luchasaurus defeats Wardlow to win the TNT Title during AEW Collision’s debut. ![]() I’m always amazed that people are shocked when their despicable action causes an equally despicable reaction.Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. He hasn’t fought yet.’ Well go fuck yourself.” And on the topic of over-enthusiastic fans that spy him on the streets of Milwaukee with his dog, Larry Talbot (named for Lon Chaney Jr.’s character in the The Wolf Man), and get a bit too close for comfort, he advises, “If you recognize that I’m walking my dog, don’t sprint at me from across the street. Regarding skeptics who’ve grown impatient waiting for his debut UFC battle to be announced – this December remains an aspirational, if not realistic, goal – he rebuts, “I gotta train, I gotta fight, and everybody’s already like, ‘I’m bored. It’s a communal environment, and Punk’s eager to pay his dues.ĬM Punk Starts Over: Inside His UFC Reinventionįor those endeared to Punk’s more outsized persona, the one that’s made headlines in wrestling circles and beyond with fourth-wall-breaking “pipe bomb” promos and confrontational social-media outbursts, fear not: He is still plenty gruff and guarded. He even helps spray down mats after workouts. It’s a far cry from the arenas Punk had grown accustomed to selling out, and there’s certainly no road crew building up and breaking down the space. The trainees keep their waters, protein drinks, smoothies and salads in a modest fridge behind the reception desk, and there’s a break room/pro-shop of sorts to the far right, bedecked with folding chairs and Roufusport-branded equipment and apparel. Fliers for upcoming MMA fights and posters of Roufusport-bred success stories like local hero and former UFC Lightweight Champion Anthony Pettis sporadically adorn the walls as motivation. Workout mats, mesh netting, a practice ring and some punching bags are about all that spruces up the joint. Nineties hip-hop blares, and the décor is spare, to say the least. Whatever air makes its way into that basement gym is dense and odorous. ![]() The facility itself – named for and co-founded by Punk’s head coach, kickboxing legend Duke Roufus – is tucked away inside an entrance across from a drive-thru ATM kiosk and down two flights of stairs. I definitely think it can be fucking scary, but I like embracing the things that scare me.”Īnd to most people, the dungeon-like atmosphere of Milwaukee’s Roufusport Mixed Martial Arts Academy, where Punk trains for several hours a day during the week, would be pretty damn foreboding. In that time and space, nothing else matters. To me, there’s something romantic about just you and another guy locked inside a cage and the better man wins. There’s slimy backstage politics, there’s always somebody trying to undercut you. “For the longest time what I did, the competition wasn’t that clean-cut,” he reflects on his WWE tenure. And despite initial backlash from a contingent of wrestling audiences and requisite skepticism from mixed martial arts competitors and admirers, he couldn’t be more content. A couple weeks later, he stunned just about everyone by announcing he’d signed with UFC. Ten months later, he broke his silence with an interview on good friend and fellow grappler Colt Cabana’s Art of Wrestling podcast, in which he lashed out at WWE’s “lazy” medical staff for what he saw as a mishandling of his health and wellness (that appearance resulted in a still-ongoing defamation lawsuit filed against Punk and Cabana, aka Scott Colton, by WWE senior ringside physician Chris Amann). ![]() Finally, after the company’s Royal Rumble pay-per-view event in January 2014, he did just that. Toward the end of his nearly eight-year stint with Vince McMahon’s World Wrestling Entertainment – during which he became arguably the promotion’s second-most widely recognized personality after John Cena – Punk (real name: Phil Brooks) was openly wary of his employer and always seemed close to walking out. That’s good news for fans of the 36-year-old Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight rookie and retired pro wrestler, who haven’t seen him relish his work for some time.
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