WWE World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk has spoken about at what age he expects he will retire from wrestling.
CM Punk says he expects to call time on his in-ring career around the age of 50. Speaking to CinemaBlend, the World Heavyweight Champion reflected on his longevity and admitted his perspective on age has changed since he first broke into the business more than two decades ago.
“When I was 15, if you asked me if I’d be wrestling when I was 40, I would tell you no, that’s crazy, 40 is so old,” Punk said. “I’m 47, and I don’t feel old yet.”
Punk pointed to veterans who wrestled into their later years, name-checking Terry Funk, Ric Flair and luchadors who remain active into their seventies. But he conceded his own retirement window is clearer now.
“Terry Funk wrestled for a long time, Ric Flair wrestled for a long time. I mean, there’s luchadors that are like in their 70s that are still doing it. Do I want to be doing that? Probably not,” he said. “I would estimate probably the big 50 is when I should maybe gracefully bow out. Knock on wood, if nothing else horrible happens.”
When Did CM Punk Start Wrestling?
CM Punk began wrestling in 1997 at the age of 18, when he started as a backyard wrestler in the federation called the “Lunatic Wrestling Federation”, having his debut match a day before his 19th birthday.
Punk joined the Steel Dominion wrestling school in Chicago in the late 1990s and started wrestling at professional events in 1999. Punk would go on to become a top name on the independent scene, wrestling for Ring of Honor in its golden age in the mid-2000s before signing with WWE in 2005.
