CM Punk is excited for fans to see his homage to classic wrestling when he debuts as “Ricky Rabies” on the STARZ series Heels.
Phil Brooks, better known as CM Punk to wrestling fans, recently spoke with WrestleZone Managing Editor Bill Pritchard about his latest acting role, one that sees him back in a wrestling ring in the fictional Duffy Wrestling League. Ricky Rabies makes his debut in the third episode of Heels, and fans might notice the character looks a lot different than the last time CM Punk was in a wrestling ring.
Clad in animal pelts and makeup covering his body tattoos, Brooks explained how Heels writer Michael Waldron came up with the character, but he was able to channel other wrestling performers and add his own spin to the role.
“I showed up and saw that outfit and everything else and I was kinda given free rein to figure out who Ricky Rabies was, where he was from. And really what I was thrilled about was, I could get to do a little love letter, an homage to some people in my wrestling career that I shared locker rooms with and helped me out. The big one—I don’t even want to say who it is. I want people to watch this show and watch Ricky Rabies, and they’ll be able to figure it out. I peppered it in with little Easter eggs here and there, so if you’re a hardcore wrestling fan,” he noted, “you know what to look for. You’re going to be ‘tickled pink’ by Ricky Rabies.”
While Brooks had a run with UFC and went through various training camps, ‘CM Punk’ has not wrestled an official match since the 2014 Royal Rumble match. Recent reports suggest he has amped up his training to prepare for a rumored return to the ring, but Brooks says it’s not as if he needed to do much to ‘get in shape’ for his role on the show. Asked if he took a different approach to training for Heels compared to a full return to wrestling, Brooks said he almost felt like he could go the opposite way to portray Rabies as a classic Memphis wrestler, but spoke highly of the effort the rest of the cast put in to make their work stand out.
“I’ll spotlight everybody else before I’ll spotlight me, but I mean, I still train. I work out every day, so it’s not like needed to quote-unquote ‘get in shape’ to be Ricky Rabies. Again, if anything, if I had the time, I would have gotten more out of shape to be Ricky Rabies, you know what I mean? To be a Tommy Rich, there’s a million different guys that came out of Memphis that were my inspiration for Ricky Rabies,” Brooks said, “and none of them ever had abs or giant pecs or anything like that. He’s your typical, Southern wrestler. He can be a bad guy, he can be a babyface, but everybody on their show busted their ass, and I’m talking lifting weights, doing cardio, getting into physical shape, but also in the ring.
“Everybody would be doing rolls, taking bumps, running the ropes. Everybody worked really, really hard. Chris Bauer, Kelly Berglund, Robby Ramos… James Harrison (Apocalypse), here’s a freak athlete who, I watched him pick up stuff and I watched him do stuff that a lot of pro wrestlers couldn’t do, but this dude was doing it effortlessly. Everybody is really putting the ring time in to really respect pro wrestling,” he explained, “and I think that’ll come across when fans watch the show.”
Brooks noted that even when he wasn’t filming on location, the show had a gym set up on a studio where everyone would go to work out. He said even if there wasn’t a “work day,” you’d still see the cast putting the effort in at the gym and it’s “very much less about me getting into shape than it is more about everybody else getting into shape.”
Heels premieres on STARZ worldwide on August 15; check out our full interview with CM Punk at the top of this post.
WrestleZone also recently spoke with the cast of Heels ahead of the premiere. You can read about how Chris Bauer channeled wrestling legends for his character, Wild Bill Hancock, at this link, and Kelli Berglund talks about how Miss Elizabeth and Alexa Bliss inspired her role as Crystal Tyler here.
