CM Punk Blasts Hulk Hogan, Says He Liked Him Even Less After Meeting Him

CM Punk admitted during a recent interview on Windy City Live that he was never a Hulk Hogan fan growing up. And once the former WWE Champion met the Hall of Famer, things apparently got worse. The two have traded verbal barbs in the past (mostly over hockey on social), but never inside of a WWE ring. While Punk was holding the company's top title for 434 days and feuding with the likes of John Cena and Brock Lesnar, Hogan was busy working as an onscreen character in TNA (Impact) Wrestling. By the time Hogan returned to the WWE in early 2014, Punk had already left due to a long list of grievances.

"I wasn't a Hogan guy [growing up," Punk said. "I've met him, and like him even less now. F— him."

Punk recently returned to the world of professional wrestling as an analyst on the WWE Backstage show on Fox Sports 1. During his first episode he broke down everything he doesn't like about WWE's current product.

"I think the product is the same as when I left it," Punk said. "Wrestling could be so much better, it could be so much more. Obviously there's a reason myself, yourself, everybody who puts on a pair of boots fell in love with professional wrestling. And regardless of what I think of the product now, the opinion is the same as when I was there.

"Stuff is overproduced, stuff's micromanaged. I think the best characters, the people that fans love the most throughout all of wrestling are the characters that they get to figure stuff out themselves instead of being told what to do by somebody who've never done anything, never been anywhere. 'never drew money, brother.' So I think there's a lot wrong with it, but I see a lot of bright spots."

But not all of his comments were negative.

"I like all the women," Punk said. "I don't like the forced Women's Revolution thing. Let the women be the women, and they'll show you why they kick ass and why they belong. You don't need to put a hashtag label on everything. Selfishly I think I like the NXT thing because I see a lot of myself in a lot of that. I was an Indie wrestling guy, I was in WWE developmental and told I was never going to be brought to television, so I know the struggle. I think those are the characters that are, for lack of a better term, lest tainted. They still feel new, they're like the new toys."