As we previously reported, CM Punk’s appearance on Colt Cabana’s Art of Wrestling podcast did not sit well with higher ups in WWE, as Triple H reportedly wanted to “kill Punk” after he received word of the interview and Vince McMahon was upset as well. McMahon, as seen on Steve Austin’s podcast, claimed he did not listen to the interview, but he was reportedly still pretty upset with Punk speaking his mind as he did.
According to The Wrestling Observer, while most of the WWE locker room loved some of the things Punk had to say on the podcast, the entire interview was not met with universal praise, yet everyone except for Brian “Road Dogg” James and Ryback publicly kept quiet and did not react to Punk’s comments.
It’s said many WWE talents felt the interview came off as “sour grapes,” as Punk shouldn’t be complaining about the way he was to be booked at WrestleMania 30 when he was booked better than all but a few talents on the WWE roster. Having to put over The Rock, Brock Lesnar and The Undertaker is a position which many in the WWE locker room would have loved to be in.
Punk was specifically booked to face Triple H at WrestleMania 30, and several talents in the locker room felt Punk came off bad complaining about being in that type of creative position, as the match would have been a top bout and given plenty of TV time leading up to the PPV.
While CM Punk’s description of his time in WWE might have been very similar to the way others would describe their experience in the company, the feeling is Punk made much more money than those performers, so many people admired a talent of his stature speaking his mind publicly.
In the end, most of the WWE locker room knew that whether or not they agreed with what Punk had to say, it would have been “career suicide” to speak out publicly.
Paglino: I have yet to offer my 2 cents on Punk’s comments and the Austin/McMahon interview, so I might as well offer them here – and yes they’ll only about 2 cents worth since this is a well worn topic.
In Cabana’s podcast, simply put, Punk came off as someone who was unhappy with his job. That’s it.
Welcome to the club Punk, being unhappy with your job constitutes about 95% of America, so what Punk had to say wasn’t that “groundbreaking” to me. We can sit here all we want and criticize Punk’s decision to quit, but at the end of the day only Punk knows what will make him happy, so none of us have the right to say he “should” or “shouldn’t have” done what he did.
The situation reminded me of when Jeff Hardy left WWE while he was Champion, (ironically feuding with CM Punk) and people blasted him for giving up his top spot in WWE. But no one stopped to ask what Jeff wanted. He didn’t want to work there anymore. Why couldn’t people accept that?
The same goes with Punk. He was tired, burnt out, hurt, upset with his position in the company, and simply didn’t want to work there anymore. It’s easy for any of us to say he had it made in WWE and he should have been more than happy to face Triple H at ‘Mania, but the bottomline is none of us is CM Punk, so we have to respect his decision.
With regards to the Austin McMahon interview, I wasn’t as floored by it as most were, mainly because Vince was pretty dodgy throughout the interview despite Austin asking the hard hitting questions. But why didn’t Austin ask Vince about Punk’s medical allegations? That was the part of the Cabana podcast that felt like a truly significant and wholly disturbing issue to me. It’s one thing to be unhappy at work, or tired, or pissed at your boss, but when it comes to a company putting its employees in harms way for the sake of the dollar, that goes beyond work blues.
Why didn’t Austin ask Vince how he responds to allegations that WWE doctors cleared Punk to work when he was suffering from a near-fatal staph infection? Punk isn’t the only talent ever to breach the subject of being told to work hurt, so while I admire Austin for asking Vince up-front if he wanted to talk about CM Punk, I wish we had the questions, and hopefully answers, to the overtly pressing issues. CM Punk claimed he almost died. This is something that must be addressed. By someone.
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
