Kemo
06-27-2023, 07:05 PM
Today (June 27, 2023) marks 12 years since CM Punk's infamous "Pipebomb Promo," the infamous 'worked shoot' public address that took place on the June 27, 2011 edition of Monday Raw.
Punk was popular before the pipebomb, but this propelled him to the highest levels of stardom. He spoke truth to power and addressed several taboo topics, including the company's creative direction, the lack of upward mobility, (the incompetence of) the McMahon family, Brock Lesnar and Hulk Hogan. He also referenced other companies, such as Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling.
Punk wanted to bring about drastic change in the company and in the big scheme of things, things did eventually change. It's regarded as one of the biggest moments of Punk's career and one of the most influential promos of the decade.
Punk spoke candidly about the Pipebomb Promo back in September 2021 during an appearance on the Dropping Character podcast with Robby Ramos. At the time, there was a lot of speculation about how much of what Punk said was cleared in advance. Did Vince know? How much of it was improvised?
"When I showed up that day, [Vince] found me and he said, ‘You’re gonna go out there and air your grievances tonight’ and I was [laughing]. ‘Sure I am. Sure I am, guy’, and he’s like, ‘Write some stuff down and let me approve it’ and I’m not gonna name names but I got with some people who were writers and I started talking about things that I wanted to say and they said, ‘Oh he’s not approving any of this. He’s not gonna want you to mention Brock’ because Brock Lesnar was gone and they had a tumultuous relationship with lawsuits and stuff that I would soon experience myself.
In my mind, what I did was I immediately just shut down and I went with the flow and I let them write stuff down and hand to Vince and Vince went, ‘Okay, this looks good.’ He gave a couple of notes, some of which I used. One was don’t mention Kevin Dunn who is the guy in the production truck, don’t mention somebody else. ‘Okay’, and then I went out and said whatever the f*ck I wanted."
2OS9wZGb_3g
Punk was popular before the pipebomb, but this propelled him to the highest levels of stardom. He spoke truth to power and addressed several taboo topics, including the company's creative direction, the lack of upward mobility, (the incompetence of) the McMahon family, Brock Lesnar and Hulk Hogan. He also referenced other companies, such as Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling.
Punk wanted to bring about drastic change in the company and in the big scheme of things, things did eventually change. It's regarded as one of the biggest moments of Punk's career and one of the most influential promos of the decade.
Punk spoke candidly about the Pipebomb Promo back in September 2021 during an appearance on the Dropping Character podcast with Robby Ramos. At the time, there was a lot of speculation about how much of what Punk said was cleared in advance. Did Vince know? How much of it was improvised?
"When I showed up that day, [Vince] found me and he said, ‘You’re gonna go out there and air your grievances tonight’ and I was [laughing]. ‘Sure I am. Sure I am, guy’, and he’s like, ‘Write some stuff down and let me approve it’ and I’m not gonna name names but I got with some people who were writers and I started talking about things that I wanted to say and they said, ‘Oh he’s not approving any of this. He’s not gonna want you to mention Brock’ because Brock Lesnar was gone and they had a tumultuous relationship with lawsuits and stuff that I would soon experience myself.
In my mind, what I did was I immediately just shut down and I went with the flow and I let them write stuff down and hand to Vince and Vince went, ‘Okay, this looks good.’ He gave a couple of notes, some of which I used. One was don’t mention Kevin Dunn who is the guy in the production truck, don’t mention somebody else. ‘Okay’, and then I went out and said whatever the f*ck I wanted."
2OS9wZGb_3g