Released ex-WWE star quickly deletes tweet after taking a dig at CM Punk over controversial comment made 20 years ago
A released ex-WWE star quickly deleted his tweet after taking a dig at a highly controversial comment that CM Punk made 20 years ago in an interview. It brought back the comments that were made.
The superstar is Lars Sullivan, who was quite controversial for various reasons before his WWE release a few years ago. He was touted as the next big thing, but issues outside the ring ultimately led to his downfall.
As CM Punk has been making comments lifting the women in WWE, such as the three women in the Women's World Title match, Lars Sullivan decided to bring up a comment from Punk's Straight Shootin' comment from 2005, where he said that "most women in the wrestling business are rats." For those who are unaware, "rats" is a derogatory term that was used in the wrestling business to describe women who have intimate relationships with male wrestlers. Considering how derogatory the term is, it's no surprise that it isn't being used anymore.
Lars Sullivan quickly deleted his tweet.
You can watch Punk's full controversial comments in the video below, starting from 55:50.
The comments made 20 years ago were from a drastically different CM Punk than the one we know today. It doesn't excuse how awful what he said was, because when looking at the full context of what he said (as you can watch in the video above with the time stamp provided), it's actually considerably worse than just the part that Sullivan highlighted in his tweet.
Ultimately, it's a reflection of just how toxic wrestling culture was, especially toward women. While we have heard numerous stories over the years of mistreatment of women within WWE, it was just as bad, if not worse, outside.
But essentially, CM Punk admitted to intentionally injuring the aspiring female wrestler, whom he referred to as "Bikini girl" because of her role as the person at ringside who took wrestlers' jackets, sunglasses, etc. He and Colt Cabana both admitted to using her to drive them around when they were tired, and they both admitted to intentionally injuring her when she was training.
As we said, the story only gets worse the more you listen to it, but it's unlikely to reflect Punk's views today.