CM Punk on WWE Treating Talents Like Indentured Servants, His UFC Debut, More

Former WWE Champion CM Punk, who makes his UFC debut in September at UFC 203 in Cleveland, appeared on “The Herd” with Colin Cowherd earlier today and had some interesting comments about his former employer. Thanks to FOX Sports for the following quotes:

“Back in I want to say, 2011, my contract was up and they were trying to re-sign me and they were trying to re-sign me for lowball figures. It’s what they do to the guys. They’re indentured servants. They try to pay them the smallest amount of money you could possibly pay them. There’s no health insurance. You’re responsible for your own travel, your own hotels, your own food on the road. You’re home once a day, maybe. I did that 10 years to get to the WWE and then I did it 10 years there, so my gas tank was empty in that regard.”

Punk says he doesn’t regret his decision to stay with WWE until 2014 but he knows he would have immediately shifted towards MMA had he not signed a new contract 3 years before. He said:

“In 2011, it was kind of hanging in the balance there and I made the decision to re-sign. It’s not that I regret that decision, it’s just that if I didn’t re-sign, I would have dedicated myself 100-percent to this. So I re-signed, that story unfolded, that chapter of my book’s over with and now I 100-percent dedicate myself to this now. It’s just later than I anticipated and it’s a bigger challenge now cause I’m older.”

On the topic of Punk “soiling the sanctity” of fighting by debuting with UFC instead of fighting his way through the rankings, Punk said:

“There’s something pure about it that nobody outside that cage can touch. Do I think that I’m ruining the sport? No, absolutely not. Do I know that there are people that are going to say that? Yeah, absolutely, but I don’t got to see them on a daily basis and when I want to shut them off, I just don’t read my Twitter.”

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