For such a world-famous and successful wrestler, CM Punk has a vanishingly tiny past with wrestling in Japan.
The former WWE and AEW Champion has no history with New Japan Pro Wrestling, unlike a lot of his contemporaries. While stars like Bryan Danielson and Finn Balor had extensive tours in the country, CM Punk seemed to stay away from travelling to the Orient to wrestle.
He has wrestled in Japan, although that was during various WWE tours. He joined the company in the land of the rising sun on tour of live events in 2006, 2009 and 2011, wrestling Randy Orton, Jeff Hardy, Alberto Del Rio and Mike Knox.
However, CM Punk does boast one tour with an actual Japanese company on his CV. This was not with New Japan, but with the often-controversial Zero1 promotion, founded by Shinya Hashimoto and Shinjiro Otani in 2001.
These appearances would be the only time the Chicago native dared to traverse to Japan without the safety of the WWE. This is because he had first-hand experience with the Yazuka, who worked themselves into a shoot in the worst possible way.
CM Punk Toured Japan With Zero1 In 2003
CM Punk’s sole tour in Japan didn’t come with New Japan Pro Wrestling but with smaller promotion Zero1.
At the time, Punk was carving out a reputation as an indie standout in the United States, particularly in Ring of Honor. His brief but impactful excursion to Japan allowed him to further develop his in-ring style and gain international experience.
He wrestled exclusively in tag team matches during the tour, including at ZERO1 Fire Festival, Still Burning and 01 World in Nagoya.
There is footage of his appearance, with a match that saw him teaming with Josh Daniels and CW Anderson against Vansack Acid/Hidaka Ikuto/Hoshikawa.
His matches were decent, if unremarkable. He wasn’t the performer he would become years later, but there was definitely hints of potential for the Chicago native.
However, the involvement of the Yakuza likely ended his time in Japan for good.
CM Punk Saw A Wrestler Potentially Being Killed By The Yakuza In Japan
That 2003 tour of Japan was memorable for CM Punk but not in the way he would have hoped. He saw first-hand the damage the Yakuza could do and possibly saw a wrestling being killed for hurting one of their members.
During a Q&A at Wizard World Comic Con around 2012, CM Punk spoke about issues with the Yazuka during his sole tour of Japan in 2003.
He explained how during a match involving Jun Kasai, a young boy accidentally got on the wrong side of the organised crime bosses in Japan.
A Yakuza member jumped in the ring to try and stop the wrestler from attacking his favourite wrestler. The usual wrestler protocol is that anyone who gets in the ring has to be taken care of, for safety and to protect the business.
However, the Yakuza didn’t like this. One of them hit him with a roundhouse kick, before dragging the bloody wrestler backstage to be dealt with by an army of Yakuza members.
“Do you guys know what the Yakuza is? They’re the Japanese Mafia. They may or may not run things in Japan, just not on the pro wrestling side.” CM Punk told a laughing audience.
“I remember every time I was over there, they would specifically say ‘Oh please, this side of the ring, stay away’. You’d look out there and see the mob (Yakuza) sitting there, all wearing suits, all wearing sunglasses. You just kind of stayed away from them.”
“There was one match in Zero 1 where one of the young boys was wrestling. He was beating up Jun Kasai and one of the Yakuza was a big Jun Kasai fan. He jumped in the ring and stood over him, like ‘Stop beating up Jun Kasai’.”
“The young boy tried something and this dude Jet Li roundhouse kicked his face. And then they picked him up and dragged him to the back. I remember sitting in the back watching them. His nose was splattered all over his face already and they’re dragging him into the back.”
“Hashimoto and Otani were walking behind him. There were like 18 Yakuza guys all walking. They all went into the room. It was like that scene in Pulp Fiction where they take the Gimp with Bruce Willis and go in with Marcellus Wallace and they close the door.”
“They turn around and close the door. I’m standing there looking like ‘they’re gonna kill him!’. I don’t know what happened in that room. If I did I probably couldn’t talk about it.”
Luckily, CM Punk wasn’t implicated in anything to do with the Yakuza. However, the issues he saw working this Zero1 tour may have scared him away from travelling back in the two decades since, outside of with the WWE.
