CM Punk accepts Cauliflower Alley Club award

[Chris]

CM Punk spoke to an audience of approximately 400 people at Wednesday night's Cauliflower Alley Club banquet in Las Vegas.

The 44-year-old accepted the Iron Mike Mazurki award at the event, the CAC's highest honor. Punk addressed banquet attendees for 45 minutes and thanked those who he feels helped him succeed in the wrestling industry.

"The business was a lot different when I got in it but the basics and the fundamentals of professional wrestling are the same as they ever were. If it worked in the 1940s, it could work today, you just have to know how to apply it," Punk said. "The basics and the fundamentals of professional wrestling were taught to me by Ace Steel."

Punk credited legends such as Roddy Piper, Dusty Rhodes, Tracy Smothers, Harley Race, and other wrestling legends who gave him the confidence he needed to succeed.

"Harley Race liked me for some reason and I didn't get it. Tracy Smothers liked me for some reason and I didn't know why. I never fit in anywhere before. Eddie Guerrero loved me and I never knew why."

Punk continued to tell the story of driving Race home from a bar and Race throwing up in Punk's car.

"I miss a lot of them. I miss Eddie, I miss Chris Candido, I miss Tracy Smothers, I miss Harley Race, I miss Terry Funk but it makes me appreciate the ones that we still have that I can still text every day. I can still text Jerry Brisco, I can still text Bret Hart, and I can still see all of you."

"I know that throughout my career, I probably rubbed some people the wrong way. Some people like me, some don't. What I always had was the backing of legends."

Punk turned his attention to Teal Piper in the audience and continued.

"Teal, your father, who is my hero, Roddy Piper. Roddy Piper is the reason I'm a wrestler today and I remember the last time I saw him and he told me he was proud of me. So, when people tell me that they don’t like me or the internet's mad at me, I just kind of chuckle because Roddy Piper liked me, Dusty Rhodes liked me. I had the respect and the backing of Harley Race before I went to the WWE, and to me, that means more than all the money in the world. Because these legends put their stamp on me before anybody even knew who I was, it gave me the confidence and it gave me the ability to succeed in a place where I didn't think I'd ever fit in."

Punk also mentioned Eddie Guerrero, Tracy Smothers, Chris Candido, Raven, JBL, Mickie James, and his wife AJ Mendez as those who helped his career.

"What means the most to me now is sharing a locker room and having those kids come up to me and they tell me, and I get emotional when they tell me, and they tell me, 'I saw you sitting cross-legged on a stage in Las Vegas and that brought me back to wrestling.' And I see a kid come up to me and they show me a tattoo and it says 'straight edge' and they say 'I've never done drugs, smoked, drank because of you.' And to me, just like the stamp of legends, that means so much to me. And if there's a reason I'm still doing this, it's that people come up to you and they say 'You saved my life.' It sounds a little far-fetched but goddamnit, I understand."

https://www.f4wonline.com/news/aew/video-cm-punk-accepts-cauliflower-alley-club-award

 

[Cwalker]

Good for him. A cool accolade

 

[Chris]

Speech was pretty cool too, lol at him saying he wasn't gonna take up the 15 minutes and going 40 instead though