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CM Punk Names WWE Hall of Famer As 'Unspoken Hero'

"I really do feel the impact of him not being around"
Joe Baiamonte|
WWE.com

CM Punk has been giving out flowers to an 'unspoken hero' of WWE who's help backstage he is currently missing.

Punk, alongside Rhea Ripley, is undertaking a media tour to promote WWE's upcoming 'Unreal' documentary series on Netflix, which will throw back the curtain on the company's creative process. Although it is not necessarily a series that Punk is a huge fan of.

Said media tour took in an interview with Robbie Fox of My Mom’s Basement, in which Punk was asked to name the 'unspoken heroes' backstage in WWE. The current number one contender to GUNTHER's World Heavyweight Championship singled out WWE Hall of Famer and Fabulous Freebird Michael 'PS' Hayes for particular praise.

“I feel like there’s so many people (that contribute to making the show go smoothly at WWE) … There’s so many chefs in the kitchen, in a good way, that if you took one person out — I mean, and it kind of happens on a weekly basis. Michael Hayes just went down, got a knee surgery so, Freebird’s gone for a while and I really do feel the impact of him not being around. Now, you can text him. But, he’s at home and him not being there, his presence is missed.”
CM Punk

Hayes has been a mainstay backstage in WWE for two decades now, having also served as an on-screen character in the '90s, both as the infamous interviewer Dok Hendrix and then, back as Michael Hayes, the manager of the Hardy Boyz in 1999.

Before then, of course, he was part of the Fabulous Freebirds alongside the likes of 'Bam Bam' Terry Gordy, Buddy Roberts and Jimmy Garvin.

The Freebirds were most notorious for their extensive feud with the Von Erich family in World Class Championship Wrestling out of Dallas, which lit the territory on fire for several years in the 1980s before Hayes moved to Bill Watts' UWF (formerly Mid-South Wrestling) and Jim Crockett Promotions, which would later become WCW.

Hayes currently serves as a producer for WWE, often working with the company's top stars. Hayes is credited for overseeing all the major angles of The Bloodline saga and regularly produces Roman Reigns' segments.

H/T Fightful for transcript assistance.

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Joe Baiamonte
JOE BAIAMONTE

Joe Baiamonte is a contributing writer for The Takedown On SI, joining the team in April, 2025. Joe has been covering professional wrestling, sports and entertainment for over a decade, serving as editor at SPORTbible between 2014 and 2018 - where he helped the team to three consecutive Football Blogging Awards - and as head of sport at Unilad. Joe has written for numerous outlets in the United Kingdom and United States, including The Sportsman, Sporf, Pubity, GiveMeSport and The Sportster, interviewing the likes of Neymar, Harry Kane, Ruud Gullit, Triple H, Ric Flair, Cody Rhodes, Becky Lynch, Rey Mysterio, Aaron Boone, Alex Cora, Chris Sale and Chase Uttley. He has a BA (Hons) degree in Journalism and Broadcasting from the University of Salford and currently resides in Manchester, England, having been raised just down the road in Burnley. He briefly moved to Croatia with his family after the birth of his son, where he spent an entire summer writing on the beach and eating squid.

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