CM Punk On Gaining WWE Hall Of Famer Harley Race's Respect When He Bought Him Shots

Last week, the Cauliflower Alley Club bestowed its coveted Iron Mike Mazurki Award for 2023 on CM Punk for his contributions and dedication to professional wrestling throughout his career. Just days before his firing from AEW after a backstage altercation at AEW All In, Punk made the journey to Las Vegas to accept such an honor from many of his peers. 

After thanking a number of ring veterans who were important to him even getting to this point in wrestling, and telling a few stories from the road, Punk elected to close out his nearly 45-minute speech with one final tale regarding the legendary Harley Race (via Sports Guys Talking Wrestling). As Punk told it, he had the pleasure of working a show with Race early in his journey, and afterward everyone made their way to a local bar — where Race proceeded to buy a round of shots for everyone. However, Punk — who is known to live the straight edge life — turned the offer down, even in the face of a pushy server who insisted that "Harley Race bought those shots, honey, you better drink it." After he believes his friend Ace Steel did the shot for him, Punk had himself an idea. 

He made his way to the bar and asked if they had any milk on-hand. And when some was located, he ordered 17 shots of the dairy product — his round of drinks for everyone. When the glass was put down in front of Race, he questioned if what he was being served was actually milk. Punk confirmed that it was, and Race proceeded to down it — and, to Punk's surprise, didn't beat him up. In Punk's estimation, "at that point, if Harley Race accepted the punk rock kid from Chicago who wore basketball shorts and Doc Martens and had no business knowing or wrestling in front of Harley Race, then I was going to be okay."