As everyone knows by now, CM Punk spoke out in public for the first time ever on his parting of ways with WWE. It was on Colt Cabana's Art of Wrestling podcast, and it is available for free from iTunes and such other places. It's a two hour podcast, but it's so interesting that time flies in without you realizing. Well worth taking some time out to give it a listen, particularly if you aren't clued up on the situation, or simply have been waiting all this time to hear what he has to say on the whole ordeal. As we've come to expect from Punk, he doesn't mince his words in the podcast. He tells it exactly how it is, and is brutally honest about the backstage politics at WWE. Some of the things were bizarre and shocking, but lets be honest, we've all suspected, or even straight known, that there was more to the situation than WWE was letting on. As he says right at the beginning, this wasn't a shoot interview at all. He didn't go into this interview with the intention of tarnishing WWE's reputation. In my humblest of opinions, they've done a good enough job doing that themselves in the past, but that's a different story for a different day. The story here is basically Punk recounts the weeks and months leading up to him finally coming to the conclusion that he had fell out of love with wrestling, and that he no longer wanted anything to do with it. Which is heartbreaking. You all know that. Each and every one of us have the same passion for professional wrestling as CM Punk once did, and to think that the biggest company in the world took that passion and turned it into something that he loathed and wanted out of is an absolute tragedy. Anyway, I thought I would run through some vital points from the podcast, just in case you can't find the time to listen to the full thing, although I would encourage you to do so. If you have the time, stop reading this just now, and go and fucking listen to this thing. It is so in-depth, he gives you a first-hand account of everything he was feeling in relation to his work, and ultimately why leaving was the only option left for him in the end. If you've ever been one of those people who have bashed him for giving up, listen to it and have your opinion changed. If, after listening to what he has to say, you still feel as though he was in the wrong, just... what's even the point? So here's some some of the things he had to say.
- First of all, and perhaps most crucially, CM Punk may have, as all the dirtsheets described it, "gone home" after the Royal Rumble, BUT - he was suspended for two months almost immediately, meaning that he was going to miss Wrestlemania no matter the case. He says that after those two months were up, he didn't receive any form of contact from Vince McMahon or WWE. After realizing that he had not yet received his royalties cheque, he made contact with someone who told him that his royalty cheque was on the desk of a WWE lawyer. After making contact with a lawyer of his own, and then having a two text conversation with Triple H, who wanted to "talk", while Punk was preparing for his wedding and honeymoon, he received a package on the morning of his wedding day, containing his termination papers. So there you have it, CM Punk did not quit the WWE, he was very much released from his contract (which, he states, was illegally registered as an independent worker's contract). That may sound like it should be the be all and end all of the situation, but there really is much more to the story than that.
- He talks in-depth about conversations he had with Vince, and it came off as though they had a really friendly working relationship, for the most part. He says that on more than one occasion, Vince would ask him to work a particular show, or work with a certain person, and that if he did, he would "owe him one". One of the guys he mentions quite often is Ryback, claiming that on a few instances, it would feel as though Ryback was deliberately trying to hurt him, including when he kicked Punk so hard during a match, that he broke his ribs. When he was coerced into working Ryback in a TLC match, mere weeks after starting rehab for an injury, Ryback again made an error, gorilla pressing Punk onto a concrete floor, completely missing the intended target - a table. He says that when he confronted Ryback afterwards, he demanded Ryback to tell him whether he was just "a dumb fuck, who sucks, or if you actually did that on purpose" to which Ryback replied "I'm a dumb fuck. Sorry." He also referred to Ryback as the "steroid guy". A couple of issues he had with Vince were when he had a couple of ideas turned down, only for someone else to take the idea and use it on their own. The first was when he was offered a sponsorship deal, and wanted to start wrestling in fight shorts, as to accommodate the sponsors. Vince vetoed it, saying that RAW's sponsors wouldn't like it, then Lesnar turned up with it a year later. The second is when he wanted to accompany Chael Sonnen to the octagon for his fight the night before the Rumble, saying that it would help draw PPV buys, but again Vince said no, calling the UFC "barbaric". Later, Triple H accompanied Floyd Mayweather to the ring for a boxing match.
- After all the speculation, he made it perfectly clear that the reason behind him going home in the first place was through injury. He tells numerous stories about injuries he suffered and what happened in the aftermath of them. In a particularly serious incident, he tells of the time leading up to the Royal Rumble, starting in December, when he noticed a lump on his lower back. Asking Dr. Chris Amann what it was, he was merely told it was a fatty deposit. He asked to get it cut away but was refused several times over a period of three months leading up to the Rumble, eventually seeking medical advice elsewhere. The new doctor took one look at it, and told him that it was a severe staph infection, which is basically the MRSA virus. Pretty serious shit. Telling the doctor that it had been there for three months, he was bluntly told that it should have killed him by then. This was just one of the instances when they dropped the ball. He claims Vince would get in touch with him the day after surgeries and tell him they need him on the road, because "you can still do promos". Another time, having just had laser eye surgery, he says he was forced into competing within a week, which included a beatdown by Nexus. During the confrontation, Punk was clawed in the eyes, and says he lost it, telling Luke Gallows to start "beating the shit" out of everyone, despite the fact that Nexus were supposed to be going over.
- Punk states that he was originally supposed to be starring in WWE Films' 12 Rounds 2, and had had a lengthy discussion with Triple H over the arrangements. Realizing that the dates for filming clashes with the European Tour, and with Punk being champ at the time, he inquired if Vince OK'd the casting. Hunter supposedly denied the fact that it was clashing with the tour at first, and then later said that he'd get back to Punk. Punk made a side-note that he wasn't bothered about missing the tour, because by that time, he was beginning to hurt and would have cherished the extra bit of time off the road. The next day, however, Punk saw on WWE.com that Randy Orton had been announced as the star of the movie, and Triple H hadn't given him as much of a courtesy call to let him know the plans had fell through.
- On the topic of Wrestlemania, Punk made no secret of the fact that he wanted to main event the show, and frankly feels as though he didn't achieve his goal in wrestling because it never happened. He says that he had the best match on the night with Taker at WM29, but knew he didn't get paid nearly as much as Taker, Lesnar, Hunter, Cena or Rock. Basically what I took from it was that WWE looked at Punk as an important part of the company, but just didn't need to pay him as much as the stars who are at the same main event status as he is, because he'll just appreciate the pay-cheque. He says that he was supposed to go over Triple H at Wrestlemania 30, but during the now fabled conversation where everything went south, he told Vince and Triple H that he neither needs or wants to wrestle him. He supposedly made it vocal to Vince that having Orton vs Batista as the main event was the worst idea possible, and that Daniel Bryan should have been in the main event, because it was his year. He says he's happy that Bryan got his big Wrestlemania moment. At the time though, Vince told him that it was his concussion that was talking, which was the final nail in the coffin, and Punk told him that he was done. Vince was apparently tearful, and told Punk that he "was family".
- The lawsuit that Punk filed against WWE was a huge success. Where he's not permitted to go into the details of the settlements, he said that he was awarded everything he was owed, and then some.
Those are only a few outlines of the points that Punk makes on the podcast, but I'd seriously recommend getting it checked out, because there's so much more that he talks about. Really entertaining, and brutally honest. The best kind of podcast. So I'll stick a link for a listen and download site, remember and share it around and what not. If you know someone who hasn't listened to it, tell them to check it out. The whole point is trying to make people more aware of the situation and everything that Punk had to go through. He'll be back on the podcast next week for a Q&A section, and you can email your questions to - aowpunk@mail.com.
Listen and download here - http://www62.zippyshare.com/v/18015296/file.html
You can also find the podcast on iTunes and other such websites, and don't forget to follow Colt and Punk on twitter for updates on when the next podcast will be going live @CMPunk and @ColtCabana.