Originally Posted by PJStar.com

ABINGDON —CM Punk doesn't drink alcohol or do drugs and has adopted a 'straight-edge' movement of basing life around personal development. He is what he is, he says, on TV and off it.
Punk, the 29-year-old World Wrestling Entertainment's heavyweight champion, is a fan favorite right now, often cheered in arenas WWE visits while his opponents are booed.
But given the WWE's not-so-distant past, where grapplers like 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin were cheered for drinking beer and flipping off opponents, will the fans continue to embrace Punk's clean lifestyle?
'I think my popularity is partly driven on it being who I am, like Steve Austin,' Punk said during a recent interview with the Journal Star. 'Obviously we are night and day on the beer drinking stuff. But I'm not trying to be a garbage man or astronaut or something I am not. What you see is what you get with me.'
Punk is a Chicago native, a current resident and a diehard Cubs fan who will headline the RAW/ECW Live event at the Peoria Civic Center's Carver Arena Saturday. He will defend the WWE title against Batista. Other matches on the card, scheduled to begin at 5 p.m., include Matt Hardy versus Mark Henry for the ECW Championship, and Kofi Kingston versus Santino Marella for the Intercontinental championship. Headlining title matches as the champion for the largest sports entertainment companies in the world is something Punk probably thought little about as a blue-mohawk-wearing high schooler at Lockport High School in the 1990s.
He didn't play football. He didn't wrestle. Instead, he was into martial arts and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
Punk also had a group of buddies he would hang around and watch pay per view wrestling matches with. They would get 'amped up,' grab cookie sheets and start smacking each other.
A fan of the entertainment, Punk wanted to learn the trade. He got on the Internet and looked around for a wrestling school in Chicago. He checked out a few that he said 'seemed shady.'
Punk eventually came upon a place called the 'Steel Domain,' which he describes as grueling and similar to places like Stu Hart's 'Dungeon' in Calgary, Canada, where many legendary wrestlers, including Bret 'The Hitman' Hart, once trained.
'The first couple of weeks ... without making it sound too barbaric, they try to make the kids (who were training) quit,' Punk said. 'It's not a malicious thing. It's just to see if they can handle it.'
Punk, an 18-year-old at the time, did.
He only thought briefly about those days at the Steel Domain before cashing in his 'Money in the Bank' award against then-champion Edge on June 30. The moment allowed Punk the opportunity to win the title. He made good on that chance, and became champion.
Punk returned to Chicago recently as the WWE champion during a RAW event there a few weeks ago. It was quite a homecoming.
'I had my best friend and little sister in the front row,' he said. 'It was overwhelming in some aspects.'