Eleven years ago today, CM Punk delivered his legendary pipebomb.
It remains a key talking point in wrestling today and will continue to be one of the most important promos in history.
It showcased Punk’s anti-establishment attitude and allowed him to cover taboo topics in WWE such as former wrestlers who left and other wrestling companies from around the world.
Questions are still asked as to whether the promo was scripted, off the cuff or even meant to happen at all, with Punk’s microphone cut off mid-flow.
Now, CM Punk finds himself with All Elite Wrestling. It’s a place which has reignited Punk’s love for the industry, but he can’t escape questions about his time in WWE and that infamous night 11 years ago.
Speaking on the AEW Unrestricted Podcast back in October, Punk spoke about the backstage reaction to his words. As it’s 11 years to the day since the event, let’s take a look back at how he described the immediate aftermath following the impact of what he had to say that night, starting with details such as not even walking back through the curtain in order to avoid any altercations and keep people guessing.
“When I was done with that I remember walking back up the ramp, on the fly thinking, ‘Well I can’t go through the curtain because I just did this promo - if I go through the curtain, kayfabe wise, I’m fist fighting somebody’. So I went side stage, which was just another tiny little thing that made people go, ‘Hmmm, this is weird’.”
Punk recalls walking through the backstage area and noticing that nobody was around. Something felt off compared to normal weeks.
“And when I got in the back, nobody anywhere. Backstage is normally buzzing, people in the hallways. It was empty. And I remember looking around like, ‘Jeez what’s going on’. And then I walked past the curtain through Gorilla and everybody in the company was jammed into the tunnel waiting to see me come through Gorilla, because they featured the same thing, they were like, ‘Ah man, this is gonna get real’.
“And the first person I see is chef Robert Irvine, because he’s there with Gail Kim, and he looks like he just got through a Dorian Yates chest workout, and he’s just like, ‘(flexing noises), that was amazing! And he’s like all fired up. He’s a guy that maybe doesn’t watch a lot of pro-wrestling, but it was just like it resonated with him.”
As for wrestlers, Chris Masters was the first performer that Punk bumped into. Masters suggested Punk could get fired for his comments on Raw.
“And then I saw Chris Masters and Chris Masters looks at me and goes, ‘Did you hear what Punk just said?’, and I was like, ‘Chris, it’s me’, and he was like, ‘Oh. Oh it is you! You’re gonna get fired dude!’. And then I just walked up.
CM Punk WWE pipebomb: Backstage reaction to iconic promo
"It was a weird scene. I didn’t know it was gonna become as big as it did, but I knew just based off those reactions, I knew we had something. I think everybody back there had game faces on and they wanna no-sell stuff. But I had texts from some pretty lofty people in the business that I looked up to and respected, so I knew I did some good television let’s just say that.”
Punk fired shots at everyone in power in WWE, including the top stars. He discussed things that stunned and shocked everyone in the business, which sticks out with what we’ve come to expect from wrestling. In many ways, the shock is why we’re still talking about it today.