The former WWE Champion was on ESPN’s First Take.
With the recent news of a huge ESPN deal, various WWE superstars are doing their media rounds on the sports broadcast. Mr. Punk, who’s scheduled to challenge for the WWE World Heavyweight title at Clash in Paris, discussed plenty of topics about his career and spoke about his current WWE run and he feels it’s going the way he hoped (Transcript courtesy of F4wonline).
“For me, yeah, I think it’s been everything that I ever thought WWE could and should be — behind the scenes and in front of the camera,” Punk responded. “That’s a better question you should ask fans and stuff like that. Because, ultimately, they’re my boss, they’re our bosses.
Since returning at Survivor Series 2023, Punk has been mainly feuding with Drew McIntyre and Seth Rollins. He loved the stuff that he did with McIntyre, but Punk is annoyed that he’s stuck in a current vortex with Seth Rollins.
“I think [the fans] could agree I did some pretty spectacular stuff with Drew McIntyre,” Punk told First Take. “And, unfortunately, I’m currently still — thorn in my side Seth Rollins — involved in that whole vortex. But we’re trying to move on from that, we’re trying to get past that.”
Speaking of Rollins, Punk got bested again by the Vision leader at Summerslam. After having a grueling 30 minute match against Gunther, Seth Rollins pulled off the ruse of the century by revealing that he really wasn’t injured and cashed in his money in the bank contract. As you can imagine, Punk wasn't happy about that.
“I got the absolute dog crap beat out of me by Gunther. Not an enjoyable experience. You wind up not beating him, but surviving Gunther and now I’m the champion for the first time in 12 years and I think I’ve made it back to the top of the mountain and here comes old tiny tim limping out on his crutches. Turns out, it was all phony, he even lied to his daughter. That’s the kind of man I’m dealing with it.”
Punk also talked about the recent deal with WWE and ESPN. Clash in Paris is scheduled to be the final show on Peacock. While fans haven’t been thrilled that the company is making the switch over to a more expensive streaming service, Punk feels that this is an exciting time for WWE and he’s looking to what’s to come.
“I’m really excited. You know, we had a great relationship with Peacock, that’s going to continue in the form of Saturday Night’s Main Event,” Punk said. “But anytime you can rub elbows and be on the same platforms like with ESPN, Netflix, stuff like that — those are just giant, household, you know, synonymous brand names. Synonymous with excellence, like CM Punk, like WWE. So I think it’s going to be a great partnership. Looking forward to it.”
Check out the full interview where Punk talks about the Chicago Bears and some more about his WWE career.