CM Punk is one of the few people who have worked with Dana White and Vince McMahon during his combat sports career.
Both Dana and Vince have similarities in their mindset and have successfully turned their respective businesses into billion-dollar companies while facing the criticism that comes with being the public face of those companies.
Speaking to Renee Paquette on Oral Sessions, Punk was asked to compare the two headstrong leading men.
"There are levels to it. They're both right-wing 'weirdos' because they obviously vote based on what's good for their pocketbook. I would say Dana is more generous. He does a lot of stuff for the fighters behind the scenes. There's a lot of locker room money thrown around that people don't know about. He gets a lot of flack. That being said, I do think fighters should be paid a lot more. A lot of that time when he lashes out when people complain about pay and unionization, it's because he knows, 'I just gave that guy $250,000 under the table but can't talk about it.' They should still get paid more and the fighters should get together and unionize anyway. Just like the wrestlers," he said.
Following up on Punk's reply, Renee asked Punk if wrestlers will ever get together to unionize.
He responded, "There's no such thing as 'the boys.' It's a trope. Once you're out of the bubble, you don't hear from anyone anymore. There will always be a handful of people that will undercut everyone just to get ahead. There are people who, by nature, are bootlickers and they love the taste. You're supposed to lick the boot, not eat the entire thing."
Unionization talk in wrestling has picked up in recent months with former Presidential candidate Andrew Yang speaking out on the topic and Zelina Vega tweeting "I support unionization" moments before her WWE release became official. Vega has also noted that she has had "powerful conversations" with SAG-AFTRA.
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