Former AEW Superstar CM Punk has heaped praise on the late WWE Hall Of Famer Eddie Guerrero for the positive impact he had during the early stages of his career.
Punk has been at the forefront of wrestling news in recent days after being fired from AEW by Tony Khan, but it hasn’t all been negatives for the Chicago-born former WWE Champion as he was honoured with the Iron Mike Mazurki Award at wrestling’s prestigious Cauliflower Alley Club Awards Banquet, held in Las Vegas on Wednesday evening.
The award is handed out each year to somebody who has exhibited outstanding dedication to the sport both inside and outside the ring and is named after Mike Mazurki, the first President of the Cauliflower Alley Club. Previous winners of the award include Stu Hart, Trish Stratus and Sgt Slaughter.
CM Punk Highlights Influence Of Eddie Guerrero
In footage released by Sports Guys Talk Wrestling on YouTube, CM Punk was keen to highlight the influence Eddie Guerrero had on his fledgling career, referencing back to a 2002 IWA Mid-South triple-threat match between the pair and Rey Mysterio:
“He was so kind, and he was sweet. He was going through it. He had just been fired [from WWE]. He was going through a divorce. He was worried about seeing his kids, but all he knew was wrestling. So he was on the road. He was working independent shops. He was getting booked in New Japan. And I remember meeting him for the first time and him looking at me and saying, ‘I don’t like three-ways. They don’t make any sense to me. If it’s okay with you, you and Rey put it together and just call it to me.'”
“I had very limited experience with going out and just kind of winging it. I’m an indie kid. We would sit down and map everything out from A to B and man, if you got concussed or the ring broke or a riot broke out or something happened, you didn’t know how to zig or how to zag. You learned on the fly.
But Eddie, that night, made me realize how garbage I actually was, and made me feel like, ‘Man, there’s so much room for improvement.’ And if this guy is willing to step in the ring with me wearing basketball shorts and Doc Martens, I need to up my game to show him respect because none of this is about me.”
H/T: WrestlingInc for the above transcription