CM Punk’s influence has stretched far beyond professional wrestling, and Lil Yachty has revealed just how much the WWE star affected his life as a teenager.
During an appearance on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Yachty named Punk as his favorite wrestler growing up and explained that Punk’s straight-edge lifestyle inspired him to stay away from alcohol and drugs throughout high school.
The rapper was such a devoted Punk fan that he would draw the wrestler’s trademark X symbols on his hands. He even considered getting the symbols tattooed before ultimately deciding against it.
More importantly, Punk’s message had a genuine impact on Yachty’s choices away from wrestling.
In high school, I used to draw the X’s on my hand, and I was going to tattoo them, but I just never did it. But I got so many pictures for me with these 2 X’s on my hand, and I was sober because of CM Punk for a long time until I became an adult.
I didn’t do any drugs in high school. I didn’t drink. I didn’t do drugs. I was sober. You couldn’t influence me to do anything because of CM Punk. Punk was sober. I was sober. Punk is still sober, but man, he was my guy.
Punk has made his straight-edge identity a major part of his wrestling persona throughout his career. For Yachty, however, it clearly went beyond being another aspect of a television character. Seeing one of his favorite wrestlers openly embrace sobriety gave him someone to identify with during his teenage years.
Yachty’s wrestling fandom wasn’t limited to Punk. He also named Jeff Hardy as another favorite and recalled being a fan of Cryme Tyme, the popular WWE pairing of Shad Gaspard and JTG.
Still, Punk appears to have left the biggest mark.
Years later, Yachty’s story offers a striking example of the influence wrestlers can have on young fans outside the ring. What began with a teenager drawing X’s on his hands ultimately became a lifestyle choice that Yachty says helped keep him sober throughout high school.
