IWA-MS, isnt going under, and getting a TV deal!!!

g was a stint in a backyard wrestling federation called the Lunatic Wrestling Federation with his friends in the mid-late 1990s. He first started using the ring name CM Punk when he was put into a tag team named the Chick Magnets with CM Venom after another performer skipped out on the card.[6][7][8] Unlike his friends, Punk genuinely wanted to be a wrestler and saw it as more than simple fun.[6] After leaving the federation, he enrolled as a student at the "Steel Domain" wrestling school in Chicago, where he was trained by Ace Steel,[3] Danny Dominion and Kevin Quinn to become a professional wrestler. As part of the training, he wrestled at St. Paul's Steel Domain Wrestling.[6][9] It was in the Steel Domain that he met Scott Colton,[10][11] who soon adopted the stage name Colt Cabana. Punk and Cabana became best friends and spent most of their early career together working in the same independent promotions, as opponents or allies.[10] In the independents Punk, along with fellow Steel Domain graduates Colt Cabana, Chuckie Smoothe, Adam Pearce and manager Dave Prazak, formed a stable named the Gold Bond Mafia.[6] The Gold Bond Mafia (CM Punk, Colt Cabana and Chris Hero) wrestled The Black T-Shirt Squad (Mike Quackenbush, Reckless Youth and Don Montoya) in the main event of CHIKARA's debut show. The BTS won after Reckless pinned Cabana following a Northern Light's Bomb 2k4.

Punk's home promotion for his early career is usually considered to be Independent Wrestling Association: Mid-South (IWA:Mid-South).[6] During Punk's time in IWA:Mid-South he had high profile feuds with Colt Cabana and Chris Hero while also rising to the top of the roster winning the IWA Mid-South Light-Heavyweight Championship twice and the IWA Mid-South Heavyweight Championship on five separate occasions. Notably his feud with Hero included a 55-minute TLC match,[6] a 93-minute two out of three falls match[9] and several 60-minute draws.[11] Punk's matches with Cabana led him to being hired by Ring of Honor promotion.[9] During his time in IWA:Mid-South he would also meet, wrestle against and become a friend of Eddie Guerrero.[6][9] From February 2003 until May 2004 Punk refused to wrestle for IWA:Mid-South. Punk claims that this was in protest to Ian Rotten's treatment of Chris Hero;[6] however Hero himself has stated he believes there were other reasons and Rotten's treatment of him was just an excuse by Punk to stop working for the company.[12] Eventually Punk returned to IWA:Mid-South and continued to perform as a wrestler and commentator for them until 2005 when he was signed to World Wrestling Entertainment. His last appearance in IWA:Mid-South was on July 2, 2005 in which he competed in a sixty-minute time limit draw against Delirious.