CM Punk Reveals How Eddie Guerrero Inspired Him to Help Younger Wrestlers

CM Punk has looked back on a time early in his career when WWE Hall Of Famer Eddie Guerrero stayed in his apartment after a show, and how his example inspired him to be “super good” to today’s younger wrestlers.

CM Punk was a guest on My Mom’s Basement with Robbie Fox when he told a story about Eddie Guerrero staying with him after a show in Chicago when the future WWE and AEW Star was just starting out in his career.

Punk said Guerrero didn’t have a rental car, so he offered him a ride to the airport the next morning so that ‘Latino Heat’ could get some sleep.

“When you’re talking to Eddie Guerrero, when he’s sitting in your apartment, he’s got a super early flight, and he doesn’t got a rental car. Me and Ace lived together in Chicago at the time, and I just offered. I was like, ‘Come over, whatever,’ and he was like, ‘I’ll take a cab’ and I was like, ‘Don’t worry about taking a cab. I’ll take you to the airport, get some sleep.’”

“And it was one of those things where it’s like you can either try to put your head on the pillow and get a nap, maybe get two hours, or you just wind up staying up, and I know a lot of wrestlers wind up staying up.

“I currently do it. I fly home so early from most cities when I’m doing AEW stuff. I get done with the show and I’m so buzzing that I can’t possibly sleep, and then you look at your watch and you’re like, flights leaving in five hours anyway. I might as well just stay up.”

CM Punk recalled that Guerrero was “freaked out” by his collection of serial killer books, but otherwise, the pair had great conversations.

“I just had the fortunate experience of having Eddie Guerrero in my apartment. I remember him being completely freaked out at my bookcase because it’s just all books about serial killers. I just remember looking over, and he’s like, kind of a weird guy, but I don’t remember specifically picking his brain.”

“It was literally just more relaxed, like friend kind of conversations. He was extremely grateful for the ride to the airport. It was in the middle of a really bad snowstorm too, so I’m not even sure if he would have been able to get a cab to go all the way out to O’Hare. It’s just a super cool experience. I didn’t do it because he was Eddie Guerrero. It could have been any one of the boys.”

“You don’t have a ride, you’re flying out of O’Hare. Well, we live X amount of time from there. We’ll just take you – but yeah, super cool, and he didn’t have to write about us in his book. But I think he did just because he was a good dude. It’s probably something that really touched him.”

He went on to say that him being back in the wrestling business is to try to pay experiences like the one he had with Guerrero forward.

“Why would these strangers help me, and that’s the good part about the business. That’s one of the reasons I’m back is to try to continue to pay stuff like that forward. Eddie Guerrero was always super good to me, so I’m just trying to be super good to the kids these days.”

Since joining AEW in September 2021, CM Punk has been living up to those words, having had matches with up and coming stars such as Darby Allin, Powerhouse Hobbs, and Daniel Garcia.

H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the above transcription.