Not only did CM Punk talk about his UFC debut possibly being pushed back during his appearance on the Anik & Florian Podcast this week, he also shared his memories of the late WWE Hall Of Famer “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes, who passed away over the weekend.
Anik and Florian asked Punk if he saw some of the tributes that WWE aired during their events the past few days, however he claimed he did not see any of it.
“Well, I did not see it, I was watching ‘Game Of Thrones.’ [Laughs] That’s what I do with my Sunday nights,” said Punk. “I loved Dusty [Rhodes] and Dusty loved me. For some reason early on in my career I was branded an ‘old soul,’ and I had a lot of old-timers constantly tell me, ‘Oh, you should’ve been born 20 years earlier,’ or, ‘You would’ve been great in my time,’ and I developed a repoir with guys like Harley Race, Dusty Rhodes and not only were these guys my friends, eventually they were …you know, Dusty got hired by WWE and he always went to bat for me. Even before he got there, he was always like, ‘This CM Punk guy.'”
Punk continued, describing some of the work-related interaction he had with Rhodes, as well as their personal relationship behind-the-scenes.
“I wrestled Dusty in one of my last matches on the indies [independent wrestling scene] in 2005 and it was pretty bizarre, but I loved Dusty. He was always super-super good to me. He was one of the few guys I’d still text after I left [WWE] and it wasn’t about the business, you know what I mean? He would say, ‘Hey kid, how are you doing?’ You know, we talked like you would talk to your friends.”
In wrapping up the discussion on the topic, Punk offered his condolences to Rhodes’ children, Cody Rhodes [Stardust] and Dustin Runnels [Goldust], both of whom work for WWE to this day.
“So, Dusty was always a sweetheart to me [and] I have nothing but nice things to say about him. I offer my condolences to his kids and I think it sucks, you know? I don’t think there’s a single person in the wrestling business that he didn’t influence. He was such a huge part of the wrestling landscape and I think the best times in his life was teaching and passing on his knowledge to the kids they have down there in their developmental system. He’s gonna be missed for sure.”
