CM Punk’s strength coach has answered the steroid accusations aimed at the Undisputed WWE Champion, and he brought a full accounting of the work behind the physique.
Jay Ferruggia, who has trained Punk through his current WWE run, posted a video to Instagram rejecting the claim outright and laying out what the 47-year-old has been doing since the two started working together.
“CM Punk is working his ass off. From day one when he reached out to me, he has done every single thing that I’ve asked him to do,” Ferruggia said.
By Ferruggia’s account, Punk checks in every day, including from Hawaii, sending photos, meals, macros, body weight and video of his workouts. He said Punk has cut processed food out entirely, weighs what he eats, and travels with a food scale and a rice cooker so the diet doesn’t slip on the road.
Ferruggia, who has worked in strength and conditioning since 1994 and lists WWE and UFC among his clients, said that across three decades of coaching nobody has worked harder than Punk. He was less generous toward the people making the accusations, calling them “weak-minded” and “lazy.”
Why The Accusations Started
The claims trace back to side-by-side photos comparing Punk’s AEW run with his current look, which circulated on X in April and drew a “gear” accusation from one fan. They picked up again in June when Punk turned up noticeably bigger in a UFC Rivals promo video ahead of his WWE return.
Ferruggia is the third person to publicly defend Punk on this. Former WWE and AEW talent Cezar Bononi called the accusations absurd in April, saying the physique was “very, very achievable naturally,” and a bodybuilder made a similar case in July.
The accusation cuts against the identity Punk has built his entire career on. He has been straight edge since day one, abstaining from alcohol, tobacco and recreational drugs, and WWE built the Straight Edge Society faction around it in 2009 and 2010.
Punk enters all of this as champion. He retained the Undisputed WWE Championship against Cody Rhodes at SummerSlam and defends it against Kevin Owens on next week’s SmackDown in Toronto, with an appearance at Worlds Collide in Chicago on September 26 also confirmed.
