CM Punk Explains Why He Didn't Want Vince McMahon to Buy Ring of Honor
CM Punk admitted he was relieved that Tony Khan bought Ring of Honor. The AEW president broke the news at the start of last week's AEW Dynamite, and while details about his plans for the Baltimore-based promotion are scarce he did confirm that the sale included the ROH tape library, which stretches all the way back to 2002 and contains a sizable chunk of Punk's early work in the wrestling business. During the post-show press conference following the Revolution pay-per-view, Punk said he never wanted to see Vince McMahon get ahold of the tape library, then talked about how WWE officials refused to give details about how wrestlers would get paid for the WWE Network when it launched.
"I was relieved [when Tony announced he bought it]. Let's be honest. Either Tony was going to buy it, or Vince [McMahon] was gonna buy it. And I don't want Vince to own my footage. He owns enough of it and I don't get paid off it," Punk began.
"People need to understand that when I left, I was asking questions about the [streaming WWE] Network, which had not been launched yet," he explained. "I was saying, 'How am I going to paid off this? We don't even understand what the pay scale is. I don't know if I get paid off the date of a pay-per-view, off a buy rate, you guys already throw darts at an imaginary board and pay me whatever you want. I still get royalties, that's the only hardcopy thing I see, DVD sales. Once all the DVDs go away and you're putting stuff on the Network, I'm not getting paid. Or am I? Tell me. Let's talk about it.' [They said] 'My guy, you're good. Don't worry about it.' They couldn't tell me. Now, I watch my royalty checks, which I still get, dwindle to nothing, because they put everything on the Network and the boys don't get paid. That's not just me. That's everybody. That's criminal.
Punk concluded with, "I loved ROH so much, and I can't explain how happy that I am that my footage, it's in good hands. It's just good to know it's in the hands of somebody who will treat it well. I literally feel like my baby is in someone's hands who will raise the child the right way and do good things with it. And it won't get made into just some tab on a shitty, confusing app that's hard to navigate and the boys don't get paid anything off it."