After losing the World Heavyweight Championship to Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 42, CM Punk showed up on RAW the following night to tease a potential feud with Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes.
However, he then vanished from television, leading to speculation and rumours about a potential creative clash with WWE (some even went so far as to allude that me might never return). Now, the Second City Saint has broken his silence on his nearly three-month absence.
"In my business, in this company, for me to be able to say that I had time off and it wasn’t due to injury or surgery is remarkable," Punk said. "It was the first time in my career I had time off without having to get surgery or be injured. I just hung out with my wife."
"I’m not going to say a rough year, you know, because suffering is relative. I was World Heavyweight Champion on RAW for quite some time, and during that entire time I was champion, I had at least three or four people who were very close to me pass away," he continued. "Each time, I was at work the next day. I didn’t talk about it publicly. I showed up partially because it helped me."
"Being here amongst my road family and being able to connect with the fans on that level helped me get through it, but there was still some stuff I needed to process. So my time away was just to kind of reset."
Punk went on to explain that spending some time with his wife, WWE Superstar AJ Lee, was another priority for him. "One day away from my wife is one day too many. I’ve been with her every single day, and now that I’m back, I’m champ and I’m on the road. I’m as full-time as full-time gets,” Punk said.
"If you’re upset that I was mourning some dead friends, I think that’s a you problem," the Best in the World concluded, acknowledging some of the online backlash that resulted from his apparent disappearance from the company. "We should celebrate people taking some time for themselves."
Punk won the Undisputed WWE Championship when he returned to WWE earlier this month, ending Sami Zayn's title reign after just 9 days. Now, he'll defend the title against Rhodes at SummerSlam in a match that has been in the making since that RAW after WrestleMania.
You can hear more from Punk in the player below.