CM Punk talked about being the World Champion in an interview with THE DAILY STAR (UK), promoting his Summer Slam title match against JBL.

 

You can read the entire article by Patrick Lennon HERE

 

YOU'D think as World Heavyweight Champion, life would be rosy for CM Punk.

In many people's eyes he has bypassed the hard yards up the beanstalk andshould have his head above the clouds.

The young Chicagoan is currently weathering something of a storm, however, since his surprise defeat of Edge at Night of Champions earlier in the month made him the youngest top tier champion since Orton.

But WWE crowds are struggling to take the 29-year-old seriously as the topbanana, it seems.

The bookers cutting short a good match with Batista and following up with a mighty squashing at the hands of the Big Red Monotony Kane on PPV doesn't help matters, but Punk is undaunted.

He has reason to be proud ­ he is the only man in history to have held both the top Ring of Honour and WWE titles. His catalogue of stellar encounters in his early career with Joe, Cabana and Danielson marked him out as a prime
indy asset for Vince McMahon, and he was snapped up in 2005.

"It's my ball now, and no-one can have it back, " the young champion tells me with obvious delight.

"It's an opportunity I've been waiting for my entire life. I'm here in WWEto become a player, I have to prove myself to the boys in the back. I'm not here to make friends."

Punk's particular brand of brash, ball-busting self-confidence has rubbed colleagues up the wrong way ­ one of
the more endearing qualities the bloke has is that he backs his own abilities to the hilt.

"It's surreal, I always expected to be champion one day, so I'm enjoying it," he says.

Punk refuses to shrink away from my assertion that most people within the industry see him as a caretaker champion, for the bigger draw in Batista on RAW.

"It's a fair comment, " he candidly admits. "Batista is a bad ass. He's been heavyweight champion twice before, he is money and he can draw.

"I am not tested, I've not wrestled a PPV main event, apart from December to Dismember. All I can say is after I won the belt, ratings are up. Ratings were not this high for the Draft.

"'Punk can't, Punk won't' all that is nothing new to me. People's doubt just fuels me. Change is always good no matter how it happens. I debuted on RAW and won the World Heavyweight Championship. That had impact."

You have to admire his confidence. In recent weeks FT has been moaning about the lack of decent in-ring wrestling in championship bouts and, having watched Punk for the past five years, there is little doubt he can provide the antidote.

He prefers to "make guys wrestle my style". RAW is a young man's world at present. DiBiase and the impressive Cody Rhodes are tag champions, and Kofi Kingston has the Intercontinental gold.

Punk knows he's honoured to have that top prize ahead of four talented young men.

"It's a breath of fresh air ­ it's awesome to think that out of those four guys, I got the heavyweight belt. It really flatters me no end.

"That's why people are tuning in, we have to look to the younger generation so we can hand the business over in good shape in the future."

The attitude is safe and sound, even if Punk's newly won shiny gold belt is under threat at Summerslam, the WWE August centrepiece.

Be sure to tune in and see how he goes.