CM Punk: Why Vince McMahon banned me from Chael Sonnen walkout

CM Punk (real name: Chick Magnet Punk) won the WWE’s triple crown (World Tag Team Champion, Intercontinental Champion, and world champion) faster than any pro wrestler ever. He left the company in January, and was fired in June, on his wedding day. He says he is never returning to the squared circle.

Punk is also a long-time student of at the Gracie Academy in Torrance, CA, and a major fan of mixed martial arts.

Former UFC contender Chael Sonnen borrowed famously from the mic work that pro wrestlers use to stir up the asses in seat. So Chick Magnet and Oregon Gangster had something in common. Back in 2012, CM Punk was going to walk Chael out for his fight with Michael Bisping at UFC On Fox 2, in Punk’s home town of Chicago.

The UFC was game. However, WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon forbid it.

In an interview on wrestler Colt Cabana’s podcast, Punk explained why. In an exhibition sport with a mortality rate that would be a scandal in boxing, that doesn’t just traffic in racist and sexist stereotypes but revels in them, that is literally steeped in blood, McMahon said MMA was too barbaric to be associated with.

“Tomorrow is the Royal Rumble so it’ll get some last-minute buys and whether Chael wins or loses, no offense to Chael, nobody is going to be talking about him,” said Punk in his pitch to McMahon, as transcribed by Marc Raimondi for MMAFighting. “They’re going to be talking about the WWE champion walking him to the Octagon.”

McMahon was unswayed.

“Oh my God, Phil,” Punk said McMahon told him (Punk’s real name isn’t Chick Magnet Punk, that was a joke; his real name is Phil Punk). “No, we can’t do that. That’s barbaric. Somebody is going to die. Then I had to remind him, ‘I don’t know if you remember Owen Hart or not, because he sort of died in your ring.'”

McMahon was also aghast that women were soon going to be competing in the UFC.

“Did you know that they’re going to have women fight in the Octagon soon?” Punk said McMahon told him.

Again Punk took the MMA side.

“Yeah and it’s the f—ing coolest thing in the world and it’s going to be the hottest f—ing thing, you’ll see,” he told McMahon.

Four months later, McMahon allowed Triple H to walk out Floyd Mayweather for his boxing match against Miguel Cotto. There have been over 750 documented deaths in boxing in the USA alone, but that apparently is not barbaric enough.

Don’t expect to see Punk, 36, in the UFC any time soon though. For one, he has no competitive experience in the sport. But what he does have is a no-compete clause with the UFC in his termination contract.

“Just like UFC is not WWE’s competition, but you can’t go work there for a year after they fire you on your wedding day,” said Punk.

However, Dave Meltzer took issue with Punk’s narative.

I don’t know what was said by Vince about UFC, but the reason Punk couldn’t walk Chael out was because Vince thought his world champion would be on UFC TV and the announcers wouldn’t acknowledge him as a celebrity and make him appear second-rate. The funny part is HHH with Floyd was allowed to a few weeks later and it was a lock Lampley would never mention him and they announced every celebrity Floyd was in the ring with but HHH, who also had to kill his broken arm angle in the process (although he claims he didn’t).

Vince’s line about somebody getting killed in there in 2012, I mean, I’m not in that conversation, but he explored buying UFC and Pride, agreed to let Ken Shamrock fight on a UFC show in 1997 (it fell through) and spent money looking into starting his own MMA promotion. In the end, his issue with MMA is he couldn’t fix the outcomes, not “barbarism.” Also, this was early 2012. At that point in time, UFC’s public position was they would never allow women’s MMA.

The Rousey-Tate fight was five weeks later which was the week Dana opened his eyes to it, and even then few knew (and I only did because we were texting that night and it was a business move), but it wasn’t until the end of 2012 when Dana ever told anyone publicly about bringing in women and started promoting Ronda. So from a time line standpoint, that conversation raised a red flag with me. Was great at making Vince look like a senile old man though.

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