CM Punk returned to Colt Cabana’s Art of Wrestling Podcast this week after his highly publicized interview. You can read some highlights below:
Punk on wanting to be called CM Punk in real life:
“If I’m walking down the street and somebody’s like ‘Yo, Phil,’ unless I know you, I’m not gonna respond to you. It’s weird, it’s strange. Steamboat always called me CM. It’s the weird, bipolar wrestling business. It is what it is.”
People chanting for him during AJ Lee’s matches:
“It’s weird, I think they do it in two cases. They do it when they see my wife, they seem to chant my name at her. I’ve had a couple people say they think it’s a respect thing to me. But it’s not me, it’s her. Chant her name,”
If he still watches WWE:
“After I re-signed, I didn’t watch anything. I used to be that guy that watched everything, analyzes everything. I would watch the live shows. I used to go back and watch all my stuff, but I didn’t have the stomach for it anymore. I’ll watch my wife’s stuff. She tells me what segment she is and I watch.”
On not main eventing WrestleMania:
“I’ve been there, done that. Now it’s something I’m synonymous with like ‘Aw shucks, he shoulda got his WrestleMania main event.’ I feel like I was communicating that to them for a great many years. The window is closed.”
On if he will ever return:
“It’s way too f*ckin’ early. I have no interest in going back. My mental stability, everything across the board is so drastically different,” Punk said.
“I’ll go work the Young Bucks in PWG, I don’t give a f*ck,” Punk said jokingly. When Cabana prodded him, Punk said “If I say it’s not off the table, you’ll have these people hold out hope that I’m coming back. It makes interesting conversation, right? Jericho thinks that I feel exactly how he felt when he left. So from his perspective, he felt that he was never going to come back, now he sees me say that. I can see his point of view, but in turn I say they didn’t fire you on your wedding day.”
On Vince McMahon’s Apology:
“I don’t wanna hear it was a coincidence, I don’t wanna hear lawyers didn’t talk to talent relations. I talked to Hunter on the 11th, on the 13th FedExed overnight, I got a document that was dated the 12th. My wife asked for that time off so she could get married. The weekend after her honeymoon, she was back on TV. They knew. If the apology was sincere, you wouldn’t use it as a publicity stunt on Austin’s podcast. You have my phone number, you have my address. You could text, you could call, you could show up when you’re a ten minute drive from my house and apologize like a f*ckin man. That’s the reality of it. I was sick and hurt and burned out and I walked, and I can do that because I’m an independent contractor. I was suspended and then nobody contacted me after my suspension to be like ‘you’re unuspended, we need you at Raw,’ I got those phone calls a day after elbow surgery, a day after knee surgery, so where was my phone call? Maybe in the two months I’m going to feel better and come to my senses, but nobody ever found out because nobody ever reached out. It was a publicity stunt, be a man and call me. It’s the f*ckin way it is,” Punk said he appreciated the sentiment, but didn’t think it was sincere.
On being an independent contractor:
“Look at Del Rio, bless his f*ckin’ heart. Love that guy, he’s wrestling other places now. You know why? Because you can’t put a no-compete clause on an independent contractor.”
On The Rock listening to his podcast:
Punk said The Rock sent him a text after last week’s podcast, saying that The Rock opened his Twitter and all of Punk’s fans were mad at him. He explained what he said about The Rock on the podcast, and The Rock was cool about it.
On Austin’s podcast with McMahon:
“I guess there wouldn’t have been any juicy details to talk about if not for our podcast last week,” Punk said.
On Working With Ryback:
“We all know I didn’t like working with Ryback, I’ve detailed that. I was told I would never have to work with him again, then I got begged to again, then I got hurt again. Then shortly after that I was working the Wyatts, and it was awesome. It was fun and it was easy and I could learn and teach at the same time. But I was so beat up that I couldn’t.”
On being told to make Roman Reigns look good:
“You know what would make him look really good, if he beat me? Everything’s micromanaged to the point to where there’s no creativity, everybody has their own agenda,”
Punk closed the show by saying he’ll will be at Challengers Comics on February 28, and will be signing issues of the Thor Annual. He also thanked all the fans who ever bought a shirt or watched him on TV or bought a ticket to see him wrestle.
Dear cm.punk I just wanna say thank you for everthing and I respect you.you stand up for yourself.to me youre the best wrestler in the world.also it was real funny how you told off john laurenities and plus I respected you more because you pulled an eddie guerrereo classic but thanks when you do come back good or bad it would be fun to watch I own two shirts of yours