CM Punk Says His Character On ‘Heels’ Pays Homage To Tracy Smothers
Ricky Rabies is Tracy Smothers.
CM Punk recently returned to professional wrestling, not only in AEW, but in the television show on Starz, Heelz. On the show, he plays a character named Ricky Rabies. Previously, CM Punk had stated that the character was based on wrestling legends from the past.
Now, in a new Q&A, CM Punk tells Sportskeeda’s Kevin Kellam that the main inspiration for the character was Tracy Smothers, whom he worked with during his early days in IWA Mid-South.
“Ricky Rabies is Tracy Smothers you know and we lost Tracy a couple of years ago and he was the first name I ever wrestled, maybe. I wrestled Tracy Smothers in a barn in Southern Indiana in 1999 or 2000, something like that. He just walked up to me, he’s like ‘hey man I seen your work, you’re good, listen, uh, I can’t remember shit you know, is it okay we just go out there and do it, I can’t memorize this and that, we can talk about it but I’ll just forget it.’
“So I just go out there and I was terrified because at that stage of my career I would have to sit down with you and be like you want to do this and then I’ll be this and then we’ll go do this so I went out there and Tracy knew what he was doing and I just remember one time in the match he grabbed somebody’s nachos and he had this nacho cheese in his hand. Now I’m in Southern Indiana, there’s no shower, there’s no nothing. I drive from Chicago all the way down there, five and a half six hours and then we get in the car and we drive back and we’re lucky if we get gas money. He’s about to hit me with this and he goes ‘block and hit me with the cheese brother’ [laughs]. I learned how to work because of Tracy Smothers, I only wish he was here to see this ridiculous shit cause I think he would love it,” said CM Punk.
Check out recent viewership information for Heels at this link.
CM Punk will face Darby Allin in his first match in seven years on Sunday, September 5 at AEW All Out. Fightful will have live coverage of the event.
