In the closing moments of the Men's Royal Rumble match on Saturday night, CM Punk eliminated Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins before being thrown out of the ring by Logan Paul.
Once the YouTube personality went over the top rope, it came down to John Cena and Jey Uso, with the latter picking up a surprise victory in the 30-man match.
Punk was a qualifying match during RAW to advance to the Elimination Chamber match (which Cena entered during the post-Royal Rumble press conference). The Best of the World has the main event of WrestleMania in sight but admitted in a recent interview that there's one thing he'd change about the Rumble.
"The Rumble didn’t go the way I would have booked it, so to speak," he says in the video below. "Since we’re just peeling back the curtain so much here, I would have had me and Cena as the last two guys. I would’ve had Cena throw my ass over the top rope, you know? Because I think at this stage, I think losing is so much more valuable than winning."
"I’m almost afraid of me winning everything that I’ve ever dreamed of because what do I do then?" he added, making it clear that his issue is less with how things played out and more with being happy to take a loss to help advance other stories at this point in his career.
Since the interview dropped, PWInsider.com has reported that Reigns vs. Rollins vs. Punk is WWE's current plan for WrestleMania. It certainly deserves the main event spot but will a title be involved? And if not, what story does WWE plan on telling? Colour us intrigued.
In a separate interview with WWE's Jackie Redmond, Punk was asked about finding the balance between being a mentor and doing what's best for his own in-ring career.
"The air I operate in is pretty rare. Obviously, the guys I’m competing against, they’re not asking me for advice. They don’t care what I think, but there are other people who maybe do. There are other people who maybe ask because they think politically that’s the smart thing to do. I’m here to help people. The selfish aspect of it to is that I could talk to a 20-year-old track and field athlete from NXT and I’m looking for something I can learn."
"It’s a two way street. 46-year-old CM Punk doesn’t know what cool is, if he ever did. Maybe the kids can help me out with that. This business, you’re nothing without the people who paved the road prior to you. This isn’t a team sport. This is a very selfish business."
"I don’t like talking about myself because I wind up saying these wildly, what I feel, are egotistical things like I’m tired of pretending that half the locker room didn’t buy a pair of boots because they saw CM Punk wrestle. I also think it’s a very powerful responsibility to not be treated the way some veterans who I looked up to maybe treated me. It’s like learned behavior. Oh, I was treated this way and now I’m going to treat the next generation this way. I do the exact opposite and I try to kill that in its tracks. They treated me that way because they were maybe scared I was coming up and I was going to take their spot."
"I want somebody to be that hungry. I want somebody to take my spot. Old lions don’t die of old age. They die from the young lions. Eventually, that’s the way I think the book of CM Punk and the final chapter gets written. I just haven’t seen anybody that man enough to do it yet."
How would you feel about Reigns vs. Rollins vs. Punk at WrestleMania?