AEW's CM Punk Reveals His 'Heels' Character Is Inspired By Tracy Smothers

CM Punk paid homage to the late Tracy Smothers with his 'Heels' character. 

Punk starred in episode three of the Starz series as Ricky Rabies, an old, beaten down independent wrestling veteran, and The Straight Edge Superstar admitted to Sportskeeda that the character is Tracy Smothers.

"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. And he just walked up to me, he's like 'hey man I seen you 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 memorise this and that, we can talk about it but I'll just forget it,'" Punk stated.

"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," Punk added.

Punk and Smothers went one on one in IWA Mid-South in 2001, a match which Punk won. 

Smothers sadly passed away in October 2020. He was 58-years-old.