The moment when a talent realizes that he has made it in wrestling is usually when they main event a big show or win a title. For CM Punk, however, the realization came in the most unconventional way.
The Straight Edge Star teamed up with Rhea Ripley to promote WWE Unreal in a recent ESPN interview. During the interview, both WWE stars were asked about the moment they realized they had made it. Ripley went first, picking up her 2018 Mae Young Classic match against IYO SKY.
CM Punk, however, picked a very different direction. He mentioned how WWE nowadays offers a lot more facilities to superstars behind the scenes, but when he was in developmental, all talent had was one makeup table:
It used to be one makeup lady, her name was Jan. Not the nicest lady in the world. This is how I knew I made it. My first time, I was under contract, I was in Ohio Valley wrestling in the developmental, and I was brought up to do a dark match, pre-television match.
I found a spray bottle that was in the makeup case and I was wetting my hair and I hear down the hallway like all these explicatives, like a sailor was yelling at me. I turned around, and it's Jan. And she's like, 'What do you think you're doing? That's for talent. Put it down.' And I was like, 'okay.' I just quietly tiptoed away.
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I'm A Top Guy Now: CM Punk
Things changed when he became a staple of the main roster, however. Per CM Punk, he first felt like a star when the same makeup lady spoke to him again:
So that's 2005 and like 2011, CM Punk becomes hottest superstar in the business, and Jan walks up to me one day and goes, 'How come you never come see me? You know I can cut your hair, right?' And I was like, 'I made it. I'm a top guy now.'
CM Punk was part of a big Gauntlet match on this week's Raw. He picked up the victory in the bout, which earns him the right to challenge Gunther for the World Title at SummerSlam next month.