Frank Turner reveals how he ended up delivering a Spear to CM Punk [Exclusive]
Not many musicians are able to say they've wrestled a former WWE Champion, but one man who certainly can is Frank Turner - who even boasts a win over CM Punk to his name!
That is if we count matches that take place within Frank Turner music videos...
CM Punk plays a starring role in the video which accompanies Turner's song The Next Storm and, while the iconic folk-punk singer discussed how Daniel Bryan was meant to be the man he faced off against, the man who went on to win the bout went on to tell us how he would take a knee to the face from The Best In The World and deliver a Spear to the WWE Backstage man!
"My friend Ben, who is like my videographer, or whatever, for the music that I make and all the rest of it, he's a big old wrestling fan. I was into, like, WWF in the early '90s when I was younger and sort of lost touch with it since then - I can tell you about the Undertaker and Royal Rumbles and all that kind of business - but he's a big wrestling fan!"
Turner then revealed how Daniel Bryan was meant to be the man he faced off against before a neck injury stopped that from happening, but his replacement was, well, a pretty good one!
"Ben again turned round and told me about CM Punk, who was somebody who I was not super familiar with. Turns out me and Phil, as his mum calls him, had a very close mutual friend who is a guy called Ryan plays with a band called Off With Their Head, who are a punk band from Chicago, who you should check out if you haven't, they're brilliant. He put us in touch, and Punk was amazing. I sent him a mail and said, "I've got this idea for a video, are you up for it?" He took about half a day to reply and was like, 'Yeah, sounds cool.' It was like, 'Oh, okay!'"
The former Million Dead frontman went on to reveal how they shot the video, and there was a very big difference between himself and CM Punk aesthetically...
"We shot the video for the song The Next Storm. I do win the wrestling match at the end. I have to say that may not have been a fair fight. He is a physically intimidating man, I'm a skinny fat person, do you know what I mean? I'm like an indie kid. Physical exercise is not really my thing, other than playing shows and that. I'm tall than him but otherwise... Eurgh!
"He came down for the shoot, and Ben had choreographed at all, with Punk, and we did a bunch of moves. I actually had a training day, because we shot it in Chicago, and I had a training day in London where this guy showed me how to do a fall and do various other things, and it was just all terrifying to me. It was like, "What is going on?" I learned a lot about wrestling in the process, about how physical it is. "
And the craziest part? Punk "called a spot" in the ring during their bout!
"The craziest part of the video, there is a bit where... Punk suggested a move when we were in the ring, he was like, 'How about a running knee strike to the face?' and I went... 'Oh, that sounds amazing!' And he set it up, put me in the corner and he was like, 'Right, don't move,' and then just ran at me and jumped and did this move. I was just like 'Oh, my God.' I've never s**t myself so much in my life. "
Not only that, but the Spear Turner delivered ended up becoming five or six of them because he wasn't aggressive enough!
"But yeah, we put it in the video. I did a spear at the end. That was funny as well because it took like five or six takes to do it because I did it and Punk was like, 'No, man, you've got to commit,' so I do it again and he was like, 'Dude, you cannot hurt me.' He was like, 'You physically cannot hurt me, just give it what you've got,' and I was like... [Frank roars] ..and just went for it. But it was a great thing, it was a really, really cool day. He's a lovely guy."
Thank you to Frank Turner for taking the time! You can follow Frank here. If you're already a fan of Frank, I also interviewed him about music, mental health and more.