Minutes after Raw ended on Monday Night, Colt Cabana joked about how he could take advantage of the free publicity that CM Punk provided him during his immediately-infamous rant. Now, less than a week removed, Colt has come up with a way to capitalize on the merchandising opportunity Punk’s promo provided him: the “Hey Colt Cabana, how ya doin’?” T-shirt. Appropriately, the shirt acknowledges the answer to Punk’s question as hilarious. If you don’t believe him, just watch this. And this. Hilarious, indeed, Mr. Cabana. You can order the shirt at ColtMerch.com for a modest $20. As if you needed any more reason to click through and place an order, an autographed 8×10 of Scotty Goldman is included with every one of these bad boys. Now that’s what’s crackin’!
In addition to being hilarious, Colt Cabana has also been outspoken over the last few days. In an interview with the Miami Herald, Colt gave his thoughts on Punk’s speech, his impending departure from the WWE, and the power he’s currently wielding to turn the industry on its head. He also gets in-depth about how his best friend’s shout-out on Raw has affected his daily life already. To read all of Cabana’s comments first-hand, just step this way, right behind this jump.
“That whole thing has been building up forever. Personally, for almost forever, his whole time there, he is able to say this to me in the comfort of my house or his house. From being laughed at by the trainers in Ohio Valley Wrestling to Paul [Heyman] finally bringing him up and everybody treating him like dirt, telling him he has an attitude problem and calling him the ‘King of the Indies.’ Just looking down on him, he just felt shunned his whole time there. It was a complete struggle.
The power of him not really caring because he was ready to leave — I always said the power of not giving a s— is so important. He is really at the point where he just wants to get out of there. It’s too frustrating for him. If he said anything that made anybody mad, what are they going to do to him? Not re-sign him? He doesn’t want to be there.
So I think that idea is so powerful. He is so strong in his beliefs with the straight edge lifestyle. By being how strong headed that he is, he was able to have the power to go out on television and say what probably every other wrestler has wanted to say. He made unbelievable television. He made unbelievable history in wrestling.
He almost has the ability to change professional wrestling as we know it. It has been so stagnant and vanilla. It kind of shook up the wrestling world because of his real life frustrations.
He has been their iron-man when everybody got popped for steroids or when everybody was getting hurt or leaving to do other things. He was the guy who was there consistently, every single night they needed him. I remember we were at the Comic-Con once. It was his one day off, and all of a sudden, all of these guys bailed on this press stuff. So we had to go up on the third floor so he could sit there and do press junkets for people because he was needed on-call. He was the go-to guy to do all of that stuff. Whether it was to do interviews with little radio stations here and there, he would do everything and anything.
Obviously, he was able to build enough monetarily for where he has his own freedom right now. He would rather be happy than be rich. He is at a point where he is financially stable and where he just wants to be happy, and I don’t think it’s with [WWE].
We always looked out for each other, especially when we first started. He was able to go higher in his career, and he was just looking out for his friend. He watches the struggle I go through and the struggles I went through when I was released from the company. I’m wrestling a very full-time professional wrestling schedule, but it’s still not on that level. I’m still trying to pay my rent. He recognizes that and wants to help me out. This is his way of helping me out. By him doing that, the Colt Cabana name recognition gets a little higher. Now people are able to see what I’m all about. I’m not asking for any free handouts. I believe in my abilities 100 percent and think I’ve done a lot of great things. It’s not at a level of a CM Punk, so now more people start Googling me and have the opportunity to check me out. I guarantee they are going to like what they see because I believe in what I’m doing. I also believe what I’m doing is at a high level, whether it’s wrestling, comedy or my podcast. I just think it’s all worth becoming a fan of.
Did I know he was going to do that? I don’t know. He is my best friend. He is going to say what he wants. He always talks about the power of live television and a live microphone. It just shows the type of guy he is. He’s almost unselfish in his acts.
I was trending on Twitter worldwide. Paul Hayman wasn’t. Brock Lesnar wasn’t. In seeing that, I have a lot of friends who literally called, e-mailed me and texted me, thinking I had died. Then they would check my Face book, and it would say I had 1,000 new friends. So they say, ‘OK, he is adding new friends.’ The visibility is very high, and it is great. I do this podcast every week that I’m very passionate about. I believe in it. I think it’s almost changing pro wrestling on an underground level, compared to the global level Punk is doing it. It’s my own underground mission. So if I can get more listeners to the podcast or more people to learn the story of a Luke Gallows or a Tyson Dux, the better. The stories I allow these guys to tell. I think it’s giving back and coming full circle to the people who really love and are passionate about wrestling. Hopefully, they will pass it on and give it forward.
I know right now he just wants to sit on his couch. He is just so tired. He obviously loves wrestling. What he did on Monday night has the potential to be just as powerful as how a Hulk Hogan or Stone Cold was.
Who knows what his next decision is. I think it has the ability to be the next break we have been waiting for. So it’s on him. He holds the cards. He wanted to sit on his couch, but who knows what he will do now.”
