Throughout his career, CM Punk has consistently used the gimmick of being “Straight Edge,” a lifestyle he repeatedly claims to follow in his actual day-to-day life. In the latest issue of Power Slam, magazine editor Findlay Martin responds to a reader’s query as to whether Punk’s “Straight Edge” gimmick is just that, a ‘fictitious’ gimmick.
“That’s a vicious rumour, as far as we know,” Martin responds. “We have spoken to many people over the last eight years who have been to bars and nightclubs with Punk and/or traveled with him in Europe and the U.S. and Canada, and all report that Punk has invariably abstained from alcohol, illegal drugs and tobacco.”
Martin, however, says that some wrestlers who worked with Punk during his path to the WWE main roster years ago found his drug-free proclamation to be phony. And upon reaching the main roster, he was shunned for living an alternative lifestyle.
“Since most wrestlers habitually use alcohol and/or drugs and are instinctively distrustful of fellow wrestlers, the assumption among most who did not know Punk when he was working on the independent circuit and treading water in WWE’s developmental system was that his teetotaler/drug-free claims were bogus,” Martin says. “When he reached WWE television and his fame and word spread that his ‘Straight Edge” gimmick was genuine, Punk was ridiculed and even ostracized by some wrestlers for choosing an alternative lifestyle to theirs.”
