CM Punk says he would "be dead or in jail right now" if he was not a wrestler.

The 46-year-old WWE Raw superstar — whose real name is Phil Brooks — has "narrowly avoided jail multiple times", and he admitted that if it was not for finding his space in the ring, he would have been a completely different person.

He told the Metro newspaper's 60 Seconds column: "I'd be dead or in jail right now, 100 per cent, and I've narrowly avoided jail multiple times.

"I really don't know, it's hard for me to say like, 'I was interested in this', and 'I was interested in that,' 'maybe I would have done this.'

"You ask kids nowadays, 'What do you want to be when you grow up?' And, unfortunately, I think a lot of people say, 'I want to be famous.'

"That sucks. Fame sucks. Fame is a side effect of being successful at what I do."

The two-time WWE Champion's "wrestling soulmate" John Cena is on his retirement tour, bringing the curtain down on his 23 years with the professional wrestling promotion.

And despite The Undertaker — real name is Mark Calaway — thinking Punk also deserves to have a retirement tour, he has no plans on stepping away any time soon.

He explained: "No, because you never know what's going to happen.

"If you'd asked me when I was 26 if I would be wrestling when I was 46, I would have been like, 'No way.'

"The business has changed so much, the miles that we put on our bodies for years and years and years, and now we're here, and we're wrestling maybe once a month, we're doing one show a week."

WWE has recently snapped up a US$5 billion (S$6.68 billion) deal with the streaming giant Netflix for its events, such as Raw and SmackDown to be broadcast live, and CM thinks it is "interesting" because he believes the company wants to "specifically find projects" for him and other wrestling stars "they feel can cross over".

Stressing that he wants to do "fulfilling" jobs — including working with John — the legend added: "I would love to do stuff with Cena and with anybody, really...

"I want to do stuff that's fulfilling.

"I don't necessarily just want to say, 'Oh, yeah, give me a billion dollars, and I'm going to fly on this jet, and I'm going to do this script that I'm not feeling."

Source: Bang