10 Fascinating WWE Backstage Facts About CM Punk

It was a long road back "home" for CM Punk, and wasn't ALL smooth sailing when he arrived...

CM Punk Drew McIntyre
WWE

CM Punk's WWE return was as much the story of 2024 as it was the last enormous twist in a 2023 with the now-standard amount of insanity expected from professional wrestling.

The man who started the year working for AEW but nowhere near the television product ended up back with a WWE he pledged to never return to. By the Royal Rumble he was back in his gear stealing the show in a closing stretch with Cody Rhodes. By the night after he was nursing an injury that ostensibly kept him out of WrestleMania. Until, that was, he ended up heavily involved in the Night Two World Heavyweight Championship mix, as he'd promised from the moment he'd returned.

One match but already some era-defining moments. This is the CM Punk way, to the point where even praising any of this will attract derision and divisiveness due to how much he splits the fanbase in two. His legacy is one that includes as much of what we're not supposed to know as what we do, inclusive of everything off screen that aids just how captivating he is when the cameras roll.

To wit...

10. He Got To Keep His Entrance Music

CM Punk Drew McIntyre
WWE.com

It took CM Punk five years to get it in WWE, but when CM Punk finally brought his last(ish) theme from Ring Of Honor to the market leader, he did so with the intent of never letting it go. This was confirmed as much by Living Colour's lead singer Corey Glover.

Speaking on the Drinks With Johnny podcast about Cult Of Personality, he said (h/t POST Wrestling);

"...he never let go of Cult of Personality as his entrance music, and the way he tells it was like, when he was in Little League in the suburbs of Chicago, the team’s entrance music was Cult of Personality. Evidently, they had a very progressive coach and he really dug the song. So he kept it his whole career...back in the day when Punk was first going to WWF (sic), they were like, ‘Okay, so we’re gonna get you your own entrance music.’ He’s like, ‘No, I already have entrance music.’ He made it a point that I’m not changing my entrance music. Because they had their own music division of the WWF and they were gonna have somebody make up a song that sounded similar to Cult of Personality. But that was gonna be his entrance music. ‘No, I don’t want that. I want the real thing.’ He’s like one of the talent that actually got that in his contract that wherever he goes, that goes with him."

WWE's had a mixed record with entrance themes over the past decade, but never has there been better time to hear the famous crackling sting of The Punker's theme than right now. The much-maligned Def Rebel have knocked out some stinkers of later, and a remixed version of the Living Colour classic doesn't bear thinking about. 

 
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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett