The professional wrestling industry can be a hard one to 'make it' in. A wrestler's career, depending on their natural talent in the ring and on the mic, can lead them to great things.

Some make it as a full-time professional, while others have to wrestle as a hobby alongside their day-to-day job.

But when does someone realise that a hobby can turn into a career? Speaking to Adam Green and Joe Lynch from The Movie Crypt Podcast, former WWE Champion CM Punk revealed when he knew that the industry would be a career for him.

“I think when people started paying me money to do it,” he stated.

“It’s the equivalent of you’re a kid, you cut your neighbor’s lawn and they hand you $7, and you’re like, ‘Whoa, wait a second, what?’ You instantly become a capitalist, and there was obviously a point in my career where I was wrestling and yes, I was getting paid, but I needed a real job to support my wrestling habit.

“And then there just came a time where slowly, incrementally, you’re making more money and you’re going to wrestle in different states. I think I got booked in my first tour in Japan, and that’s when I was like, ‘Wow, I really made it.’ There’s no looking back now. I need to do this and make money at it, and I think I did okay.”

Punk was later asked about a time in his career, when he ever felt scared during a match. He mentioned his 2009 SummerSlam bout with Jeff Hardy, where he won the World Heavyweight Title in a TLC match.

CM Punk

“I remember wrestling Jeff Hardy in the Staples Center, and he was jumping off a very tall ladder onto me and I just had to kind of lay on a table for an extended period of time, which really makes you think about it,” he noted.

“And it’s one of those things where I was just looking, I’m like, ‘Man, he’s really high up there. This sucks,’ and you stew in that moment. And I remember being like, ‘I should just get up and walk away. Why am I laying here? This is stupid,’ and then he finally jumped on me.

“And I was like, ‘Yeah, that hurt. Alright, great,’ because at that point, you want to protect Jeff more than you want to protect yourself because he’s the one that’s jumping, but you realize there’s a 200-pound man hurtling at you from a great height and this is not going to end well for either of you."