UPDATE: CM Punk was particularly critical of
WWE doctor Chris Amann in his appearance on the Colt Cabana podcast. In it, Punk
said Amann misdiagnosed and ignored a MERSA staph infection on his back for
months and that the first doctor Punk went to after leaving WWE was stunned to
hear that Punk wrestled with the infection for months, going as far as to say he
could have died from it. You can read our full recap of CM Punk’s stunning
comments on the website.
Amann’s Twitter handle is @WWEDocAmann. He is a graduate
of the University of Michigan and went to medical school at Loyola University.
He was also a physician for the U.S. during the 2008 Olympics.
Amann said the following to WWE Magazine about leaving his
practice in Chicago and joining WWE in 2008.
“Quite honestly, I wasn’t looking to leave the medical
practice I’d built up pretty strong back in Chicago. But I had the opportunity
to send WWE my résumé, and I did. A couple of weeks later, I went out for an
interview at a TV taping in Albany. I got a chance to see what went on behind
the scenes and speak with the staff, learn the requirements. I was intrigued
about having the chance to develop their sports-medicine program not to mention
the job sounded like a bunch of fun. So I left my practice to join up with
WWE.”
ORIGINAL: CM Punk was a guest on Colt Cabana’s
“Art of Wrestling” podcast and went into detail about why he left WWE. The
podcast is available at ColtCabana.com. Highlights of
the appearance are below, but note that Punk went into extreme detail in
describing his departure from WWE and everything that happened, so it’s well
worth listening to.
– Punk said that he never quit WWE, but that he was
fired. Punk left WWE in January. A few weeks after that, Vince McMahon informed
him via text that he was suspended for two months. After the suspension ended,
nobody from WWE ever contacted him. Punk eventually reached out to WWE about
royalties he felt were owed to him, and said WWE gave him the run-around before
eventually sending him termination papers. The papers said he was fired due to
breaching his contract on his wedding day, so he was officially fired in June
2014. WWE decided to use his wedding in June 2014 as the reason for the breach,
not his hiatus in January. Punk said WWE had taken things “too fucking
far.”
– Regarding why he left WWE in January, he said it was due to his
health. Punk said that during his final months in WWE, he worked with broken
ribs, a concussion, and injured knees. Punk said he felt so sick during WWE’s
November 2013 European tour that he was throwing up and dry heaving after every
match he worked. Punk said WWE doctors kept giving him antibiotics and said they
caused him to literally poop himself in the ring during a match he worked on
Smackdown. Punk said it was the most sick he had ever felt in his life.
–
Punk said he suffered a concussion during his match at the Royal Rumble but
continued to work it anyway. He passed WWE’s concussion test the next day,
saying that was “bullshit.” Punk told WWE to just admit he had a concussion, but
they wanted him to do more tests. Punk said he told WWE to help him and finally
went to Vince McMahon and Triple H directly, telling them he’s going
home.
– Punk went off on Triple H, saying he ruined his momentum in 2011
and that he told Vince McMahon that Triple H was stifling his creativity. He
also said he told Vince that they were screwing up by not putting Daniel Bryan
in the WrestleMania main event and that they were going to pass him by.
–
Punk went off on a WWE doctor named Chris Amann (we posted more info on Dr.
Amann here). Punk says he found a lump on his back, which Amann said was just a
fat deposit. Punk asked Amann to cut it out several times but Amann refused. The
lump got bigger and turned purple and painful. Punk told Amann again before the
Royal Rumble to cut it out, but Amann refused, saying Punk had to wrestle. After
the match, Punk again told him to cut it out but Amann said if he did, he’d have
to put Punk on antibiotics. After Punk left, he went to another doctor that AJ
Lee found for him, and that doctor diagnosed the lump as a MERSA staph infection
and immediately drained puss out of it. Punk said the doctor was stunned that he
had been wrestling with the infection for months, and said Punk “should be
dead.” Punk blasted WWE for misdiagnosing and ignoring his infection which he
worked with for months.
– Punk blasted WWE for bringing him back so soon
after injuries, saying WWE told him after multiple surgeries that he was being
brought back right away. He said he sometimes wished for injuries and surgery
just because he hoped it would give him some time off, but that WWE would just
bring him right back despite injuries/surgeries.
– Punk said his WWE
career was a failure since he never headlined WrestleMania. Punk said Vince
McMahon was an “out of touch old man” and that he’d constantly hear how he
wasn’t a draw, but that he’d always shove that down everyone’s throats. Punk
said he worked the best match at WrestleMania 29 but knew he didn’t get as much
money as John Cena, The Rock, Triple H, Undertaker, and Brock Lesnar
got.
– Punk told a story about how Vince McMahon would often take his
ideas and give them to other wrestlers. One example he gave was that he told
Vince that he wanted to walk Chael Sonnen to the Octagon for his UFC fight in
Chicago, but that Vince said no because he considered MMA “barbaric.” Weeks
later, Triple H walked Floyd Mayweather to the ring before one of his boxing
fights.
– He also said that at one point, he was being approached by
major companies regarding sponsorships. He said he had a “big money” deal on the
table and met with Vince about it and told Vince that it’d be good for business
and draw new people to the product, but that Vince vetoed it right away, saying
it would upset WWE’s TV sponsors as well as the other wrestlers. A year later,
Punk said, Brock Lesnar had sponsors.
– Punk said he never held WWE up
for money and did not walk out in the middle of a storyline, saying he left
after being chokeslammed by Kane. He said he was frustrated by getting less and
less money but that he went home due to his health and sanity. He also said he
asked how WWE’s pay scale would change with the WWE Network but nobody ever
would give him any answers.
– Punk said he hired a “vicious” lawyer to go
after WWE, and got everything he wanted “and more.” He said he can’t talk about
the specifics of the settlement, but that he got everything he wanted. He said
WWE was scared that Punk would go to court over the independent contractor issue
and ruin their way of business.
– Punk said he will never, ever have a
working relationship with WWE again.
– Punk attacked WWE’s independent
contractor setup and said if they really cared about the well-being of the
wrestlers, they’d let the wrestlers form a union like the player unions in the
NFL, NBA, etc. He said WWE’s concussion tests, for example, are self-serving and
not in the interest of the wrestlers.
– Punk said he was supposed to star
in 12 Rounds 2 but that when he told Triple H that the movie’s shooting dates
overlapped with WWE’s European tour, Triple H announced the next day that Randy
Orton would star in the movie.
– Punk said Triple H thinks he is a “piece
of shit.”
– Punk called Ryback a “steroid guy” and said that wrestling
him took 20 years off his life, resulted in broken ribs, and other
injuries.
– Punk said WWE was worried he’d go to TNA, but that his lawyer
told WWE that Punk despised wrestling now and would never wrestle
again.