Wrestling Samoa Joe might not be a good idea if you have to take a photo after the match — just ask CM Punk.
CM Punk recently was a guest on My Mom’s Basement with Robbie Fox to discuss his professional wrestling career and a variety of other subjects. During the interview, CM Punk’s rivalry with Samoa Joe in Ring of Honor was brought up and Punk tried to break down their 60-minute classics and how a match like that is handled:
“60 minutes is a long time,” CM Punk began. “God, you know when you do a 60 Minute. When you do a 60-minute match, I think you just got to try to break it down into four 15 minute matches. Otherwise, your head will just explode. But again, I’m not gonna say that me and Joe went out there and had nothing called I’m sure there was definitely stuff that we had talked about, but it’s all the in-between stuff that I think is the most important in a match like that.”
CM Punk was surprised to hear those matches still hold up today and talked about a funny story that the day after the second match [ROH: Punk vs. Joe II], he had a black eye and had to get his driver’s license photo taken with a shiner:
“I’m shocked to hear that holds up,” CM Punk continued. “I mean, 60 minutes is a long time to watch a wrestling match. I mean, it’s a menu, right? Like everybody’s got something on the menu that they’re not going to order, and they have their favorite, and they want to try something different, but I think I’ll just go ahead and get the meatballs. I loved wrestling Joe. I think he gave me a pretty good black eye that night, and then I think the next day I had to go get my new driver’s license or something like that, so I had a nice shiner on my driver’s license picture. I was proud of that for years.”
Watch the first time-limit draw between CM Punk and Samoa Joe (and the first in their 2004 trilogy of matches) at this link. CM Punk also talked about having fond memories of his days on WWE’s ECW revival; you can read his remarks about that chapter of his career at this link.
Read More: CM Punk Is ‘Gonna Keep Having Fun’ Wrestling, Stoked AJ Lee Is Returning For ‘WOW’
Do you remember CM Punk’s series of matches with Samoa Joe in Ring of Honor? If not, are those matches you’d want to go back and check out? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit My Mom’s Basement with Robbie Fox and leave a link back to this article for the transcription.
