CM Punk isn’t one to mince words, and he made his thoughts clear when asked about unionization in wrestling.
During a recent interview with 670 The Score in his hometown of Chicago, CM Punk was asked whether he believes there should be unions in professional wrestling similar to WGA or SAG-AFTRA. Punk’s answer was unequivocal: he believes that while wrestlers would benefit from unions, they’re too “stupid and selfish” to ever make that happen.
“For professional wrestling, yeah, wrestlers should 100% have a union. I’ll always say this, and I mean it in the most loving way; wrestlers will never unionize because wrestlers are stupid and selfish. That’s just the way it is. There is always going to be somebody else around the corner that wants what you have or possibly doesn’t want you to have what you have and they will do whatever the promoter wants you to do for less money. That’s unfortunate. The boys never stick together.”
After saying that he likes hockey as players stick together in a players’ union, CM Punk explained why he believes wrestlers aren’t as willing to stand together in the face of wealthy promoters.
“They Can’t Afford To Lose Their Job” – CM Punk On Why Wrestlers Will Never Unionize
“I think it’s a lack of places to work. It’s really a wage gap disparity, it’s a class war. When your boss is a billionaire and you don’t want to rock the boat — this isn’t in wrestling, this applies to anything. More often than not, people will want to keep their head down, not get in trouble, and just go about their day. For better or worse, people have mouths to feed. There are people with kids, families, taking care of other people, and they can’t afford to lose their job.
“Fortunately, for me, I’ve never been that guy. I’m always like, ‘I don’t need the money. This is wrong and I get to tell people it’s wrong.’ I don’t think the platform I have is worth anything if I don’t speak from the heart about issues that I feel are important.”
Finally, Punk says that he’s done research into unionizing in wrestling, and he knows it would take a large group of people to get anything done.
“I have researched. Probably not as extensively as I should if I was going to act on this. I’m just me. There is strength in numbers. If it were to ever happen, just like it happened any other time people have risen up and created a union or strived for better working conditions for workers, it has to be a group of people. People have to stick together, and wrestlers are just never going to stick together. It’s sad.”
Elsewhere in the interview, CM Punk responded to the question of whether or not he’ll be at Survivor Series in Chicago at the end of November.
CM Punk last competed at AEW All In, defeating Samoa Joe. Just prior to his match, he was involved in a backstage altercation with Jack Perry, and he was released from his AEW contract following an investigation.
h/t Fightful