Credit: Joseph Lee
CM Punk has returned to Colt Cabana’s “Art of Wrestling” podcast
to follow up on last week and respond to Vince McMahon’s statements on the Steve
Austin Show podcast.
Here’s a description: Last week CM Punk put it all
out there to Colt and the world. This week, we wanted to make sure we covered
all the bases. In whats still a light hearted podcast, tough topics such as
apologies, sponsorships and frustrations still come to light.
You can
listen to the podcast below. Here are highlights of what Punk said:
– At
the beginning of the episode, the two said it would be a “cool down” show and
more laid back. Punk said, “You’re all going to hate this episode.” Punk
mentioned that he used the f-word a lot and according to a Twitter follower, it
was over 300 times. Punk said a teacher told him, “There are no such thing as a
bad word, just bad intentions.” He added that he can say it as much as he wants
and he doesn’t know what to say to those who have a problem with it.
–
Cabana said that he received over 10,000 emails after the first podcast was
released. Punk said he didn’t think it would be a big deal and he “just wanted
to get it out there” after people called him a quitter and said he turned his
back on his fans.
– Punk said he received settlement papers from the WWE
on his birthday, October 26. He said he wanted to do the podcast immediately but
Cabana was in Japan. When Cabana returned, Punk was in Los Angeles. He said: “I
was really anxiety-ridden and antsy just to tell my story, just to get it out so
I could move on with the next chapter of my life. And that’s basically what it
was. I didn’t expect it to become this big thing. It was not meant to be like
‘I’m going to bash the WWE and I’m going to say this and say that.’ I just
rolled with it.”
– Cabana said he knew about Punk’s story and Punk said
he was one of the few. Cabana said the news was “everyday” to him and it makes
sense that it was so big. Punk said last week was “super cathartic and
therapeutic” and he felt “super awesome about it.” Cabana added that Punk
received a lot of “grief” before the podcast and he thinks the reaction is now
positive. Punk said he’s only had to block about six people. They spoke about
fan questions and laughed at some of them, including someone asking why The
Shield were so wet when they walked to the ring. When asked if he thinks he left
anything out last week, Punk said he thinks he got everything. He spoke about
how WWE’s “awful communication” would make him sound like “the bitter wrestling
guy.”
– Cabana seemed bothered by fans calling Punk “Phil”. Punk wasn’t
bothered and he said that while people may think “CM Punk” is a WWE creation but
“nothing could be further from the truth.” He said it’s just his name now and
it’s becoming a brand. He said only people who know him can call him Phil and he
likely won’t respond to those who call him that on the street. He added that
Ricky Steamboat called him “CM”.
– The two spoke about the “CM Punk”
chants on RAW, particularly during AJ Lee’s matches. He said they “seem to chant
my name at her”. He added that he stopped watching wrestling three years ago. He
added: “I ceased watching any of my stuff. I just didn’t have the stomach for
it.”
Punk said he still watches AJ’s stuff because she tells him what
segment she’s in. He added that while he gets anxiety over watching it, it’s his
wife. Cabana brought up fans moving from Punk’s name to AJ’s name last
week.
Punk said: “I see it, I get it. Don’t chant at the guys that are
busting their asses. I will be completely biased and be like, you paid for the
ticket, chant and do whatever you want, just don’t chant it at my friends and
just chant it at the guys that f—in’ suck and the guys who wear lifts in their
boots.”
– Cabana asked about what would bring Punk back to wrestling,
including the Wrestlemania main event. Punk told a story about The Doors doing
the Ed Sullivan Show before they were big. They were asked about performing
“Light My Fire” and the lyrics mentioning “higher”. They agreed to change the
lyrics but Jim Morrison performed it live as is. Sullivan said they would never
play the show again but Morrison said they just did. Punk said the window is
closed.
– Cabana said he heard from several WWE wrestlers who loved the
podcast. He said he was at WrestleCade over the weekend and all the wrestlers
said that Punk would be back because he won’t be able to turn down the money.
Cabana said he doesn’t want Punk to say he won’t be back just in case, but Punk
laughed about someone not being able to live on $20 million.
– Punk said:
“Let’s play it safe. It’s way too f—ing early. I have no interest in going back.
The difference in my appearance, my mental stability, and everything across the
board from now from nine, ten months ago is so drastically different.”
–
He mentioned the two months off from WWE he got after working The Undertaker at
Wrestlemania. He said: “Compound that by another year of bullshit, lies, and
miscommunication and you get where I’m at right now.”
– He was asked if
there was any time Punk was happy in the ring during the final year. He brought
up the Wyatts and said he thought it was great because he could have fun and
teach at the same time. He said: “That’s when I knew I had to leave. We all know
I didn’t like working with Ryback. We detailed that… I was told I would never
have to work with him again, and then I got begged to working with him again,
and I got hurt again. Then shortly after that I was working the Wyatts. I was so
beat up that I couldn’t.”
– He said he teamed with Bryan and would crouch
down in the corner and will himself to tag the hot tag and get through the
match. He said that he was “dry heaving” and it was “insane”.
– Punk told
a “funny story” about the last part of his run in WWE. He said a friend was
getting married and he gave the WWE the date eight months before. Michael Hayes
said it was a PPV and he would have to talk to Vince. He said he was telling
them he wouldn’t be there and reminded them once a month, up until the final
month when he had a handicap match against The Shield. Vince told him he really
needed him. Punk said he would go first and AJ would go second, then a car would
wait for them. He said that’s how it happened and he managed to get to the end
of the wedding before flying back.
– Punk said he was told repeatedly
during his handicap match with the Shield to make the group (especially Roman
Reigns) look “really, really strong.” He said that the way to do that would be
to put The Shield over since there were three of them.
– Cabana brought
up the possibility of working a show in England or Japan in three years. Punk
said: “I’ll go work the Young Bucks in PWG, I don’t give a f—. If I say it’s not
off the table you’re going to have people these people who are holding on with
hope that I’m coming back… I think there are plenty of guys out there that think
they know, (Chris) Jericho I think is one of them. Jericho thinks that I feel
exactly how he felt in 2005 and he left for two, two-and-a-half years or
something like that. From his perspective, he felt in 2005 when he left that he
was never going to come back and now he sees me saying that and he’s probably
like, ‘Ah, just wait three years, you’ll feel like it will come back.’ I can see
his point of view, but then in turn I go, motherf—er, they didn’t fire you on
your wedding day. They didn’t purposely and maliciously try to ruin a day that
is supposed to be special to everybody, it’s your wedding day.”
– He also
spoke about getting fired on his wedding day and Vince McMahon’s apology on the
Steve Austin Show podcast. He said: “I don’t want to hear it was a coincidence.
I don’t want to hear the lawyers didn’t talk to talent relations. I talked to
Hunter on the 11th, on the 13th FedEx’d overnight I got a document that was
dated the 12th. My wife asked for that time off so she could (a) get married (b)
go on her honeymoon. The weekend after her honeymoon she was back on TV. You
know what I mean? They knew. I don’t want to hear it was a coincidence. You know
what, I’ll address it, if the apology was sincere you wouldn’t use it as a
publicity stunt on (Steve) 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 f—ing drive from my house and apologize to me like a man. That’s the
f—ing reality of it, that’s the f—ing timeline, ladies and gentlemen. I was sick
and f—ing hurt, and sick and tired and burnt out and I walked and I can do that
because I’m an independent f—ing contractor. And then I was suspended and then
nobody contacted me after my suspension to (say he was needed at Raw). I got
those calls, we need you at TV, a day after elbow surgery. I got that call a day
after knee surgery. They weren’t afraid to do it then, so where the f— was my
phone call. Oh, I’m suspended, fine, great, I’m suspended. You know what? Maybe
in the two months I’m going to wind up feeling better and I’m going to come to
my senses, but nobody ever found out because nobody ever reached out. Every six
months we had a new head of talent relations, whether it was Jane Geddes,
whether it was Sean Cleary, and there are all these people who had no business
being the head of talent relations. Every six months, somebody new. And you’re
supposed to relate to the talent, but nobody knew how to talk to these people…
So it’s hard to relate to these people. I don’t want to hear it was a
coincidence. I’m sorry, it was a publicity stunt. You’re sorry? Great, be a man
and call me.”
– He also said that he didn’t know why people were mad he
got out. He brought up the people who say he signed a contract. He said: “You
have to understand, the contracts are not worth the paper they are printed on.
If they were, they wouldn’t have settled. They would have held me over a barrel
and I wouldn’t be doing this f—ing podcast. I waited until all this legal
bullshit was out of the way. It was all about a settlement. It was, ‘Hey, guys,
guess what? You can’t do that, you can’t do this, and don’t do this.’ And they
immediately fired back and were like, ‘Okay, how do you want to proceed?’ And
that’s what it was. Lawyers didn’t jam anything up. Lawyers expedited the
process and now I’m a free guy. Look at (Alberto) Del Rio, bless his f—ing
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, period.”
–
Punk said The Rock reached out to him on Thanksgiving and when he opened his
Twitter he found that all of Punk’s fans were mad at him. Punk explained things
and said he didn’t think he said anything bad about him specifically during the
podcast. Rock was “super cool about it” and Punk chalked it up to the passion of
wrestling fans.
– Punk said he didn’t think Vince McMahon’s apology was
sincere. He added that Vince knew about the problems since June. He added: “He
just wanted to make sure a TV camera was on him so he could try to damage
control.”
– Punk said the Wizard World convention contacted him after the
pipe bomb promo and wanted him to appear. Punk went to the WWE office and said
he wanted those dates off for a house show. The office gave it to everyone else.
He said he wasn’t mad because his wife and others worked the events. He said,
“Is there a kickback for me? I feel like if I don’t ask, if I don’t raise a
stink about it, then I’m a bad business man and now they think that they can
just walk all over me and do whatever the f— they want.”
– He said he was
scheduled for Wizard World Nashville and was sitting on the couch when he
received an alert saying Punk was not available for the convention and was
replaced by Daniel Bryan. He said it was news to him and he called up the office
while he was upset. He said it was $20,000 for four hours of work. He called
Mark Carano a “spin doctor” and said that he told him they needed him on the
Mexico tour because it wasn’t doing well. He said his payoff for the four
Mexican dates needed to be at least $20,000 but his paycheck was around $5,000.
Punk said he took the check to TV and told them to fix it. He added that someone
on Twitter will say it’s a lot of money and they would love to work for Vince
McMahon for that amount of money. He said: “I’m not a bad communicator. They
just don’t like the way I communicate. That’s exactly who he wants to have work
for him, so go f—ing work for him. I know what the f— I’m worth. Know how I know
what I’m worth? Because Wizard World was going to pay me twenty thousand f—ing
dollars to sit in a chair for four hours.”
– Cabana mentioned Punk
meeting with a friend of his who works for Slim Jim. Punk said he had meetings
about being the face of the company. Slim Jim was told by WWE that they didn’t
want Punk, they wanted Rey Mysterio, Big Show and Eve Torres. He said: “I can
only imagine, I can only assume that they don’t want just one person to have
this powerful sponsor.”
Punk said it reminded him of when Heyman was
writing the WWE video games. He said the video game company wanted him on the
cover but someone later sent him an email exchange in which the WWE said they
wanted Sheamus instead.
– Cabana brought up a tattoo show. Punk said he’s
“forgotten more things that they’ve bizarrely f—ed me on.” He mentioned WWe
putting Randy Orton on the show even though Punk had the connection. He said
that it’s “the way they f—ing operate.” He said he wanted out and now he doesn’t
have people telling him to tweet. He doesn’t have a “faceless writer” asking him
to tweet about John Cena’s storyline. He said: “And I just looked at him and go,
‘Yeah, as soon as John Cena tweets about my f—ing storyline.’”
– Finally,
he thanked his fans. He said he had to wait as long as he did for legal reasons
and told his story as soon as he could. He said if he offended anyone, he’s
sorry but they may need to lighten up. He told the audience to find something
they enjoy doing and do it.
