CM Punk has discussed his character on Heels, revealing which wrestler he chose to pay homage to with his performance.

On the Starz TV show, Heels, CM Punk plays a character called Ricky Rabies. Punk has previously noted that Rabies was based on past wrestling legends.

Speaking with Sportskeeda, Punk stated that Ricky Rabies pays homage to the late Tracy Smothers. Explaining that he learned how to work thanks to Smothers, Punk said:

“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 s**t 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 s**t cause I think he would love it.”

Smothers notably wrestled for WWF and ECW in the late 1990s, winning the ECW World Tag Team Championship in 1997. He is also known for his runs with the likes of Smokey Mountain Wrestling, World Championship Wrestling and New Japan Pro Wrestling.

Punk returns to the ring this Sunday at AEW All Out against Darby Allin.

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• Ricky Rabies
• Heels
• tracy smothers
• cm punk

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