CM Punk – ‘F*ck Vince McMahon, Shuffle Him Into The Basement!’

LEIA MAIS:

You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:

On if he spoke with McMahon when he returned: “I saw him at the towers. Monday before Thanksgiving, get a phone call, we realized we could do this. Nick Khan, ‘If it doesn’t happen by Saturday. Royal Rumble.’ I was like, ‘Nick, I don’t want to give away any leverage in negotiations, but Saturday is the business. It has to happen.’ Hammering out a deal. Saturday, debut. Sunday, I’m at home and I’m like, ‘Man, this is strange. I don’t know what we’re doing, where we’re going, but it feels right.’ I get a call, ‘We should get you travel to TV.’ I fly to Nashville. I went home and I can’t remember where I flew from there, but it was SmackDown. That night they were like, ‘You want to come on the jet and do NXT?’ ‘Yeah, sounds great.’ We’re flying by the seat of our pants and doing this stuff real last minute. I got a tour of the new tours and the gym. I was on the phone, on the treadmill, warming up. Vince’s trainer is like, ‘You have to get off the phone. Vince doesn’t like it when people are on the phone in the gym.’ I was on the phone with Nick. I’m like, ‘Okay.’ I saw him walking down and into the gym. He came in for his daily workout. He gave me a big hug. He said, ‘Welcome home, good to see you. Let’s connect after I work out.’ Haven’t seen him since.”

Helwani asked to clarify that Punk did not connect with McMahon, and he replied, “No, I think some stuff came up.”

On the allegations against McMahon: “There is no positivity there. I didn’t read all the allegations. I read text messages. I went, ‘Oh, f**k this.’ It’s indefensible. The easiest thing for people to do is ignore it or avoid it. It’s there. My initial, first thing out of my mouth was, ‘I’m kind of shocked at how dumb he was writing stuff down and leaving that paper trail.’ It’s horrific. At this point, all the energy should be used to, I don’t know if you can, but make reparations or amends. There are victims here. What CM Punk thinks about Vince and the CM Punk-Vince relationship doesn’t f**king mean anything. All that stuff takes a backseat. I’m more concerned about going forward, how do those people survive after suffering all of that trauma? That’s my biggest concern.”

On if the business is better off without him: “At this point, how do you say anything but yes, the business is better without him.”

On if he ever had any idea of this behavior from Vince: “No. The biggest thing I can draw a comparison to is when Chris Benoit did a murder-suicide. I was friends with Chris Benoit. I don’t know if it’s just how I process things, but I’m famously on camera weeping, saying goodbye to Chris because, at the time, we didn’t know. We didn’t know he had murdered his wife and son. The week prior, we’re in Alabama, I’m traveling with him, we’re on the road, and he grabs me and runs me into the trainer’s room, he points and his son is in the corner taping up his hands and drawing Xs on his hands. Coming to terms with, that’s my friend, he did this horrible thing. Obviously, f**k him, f**k that. I don’t have memories of Chris Benoit traveling with me and murdering people at the gym. There was never any instances where I was in a room with Vince and he’s sh**ting on somebody or sexually assaulting somebody. We just didn’t see it. There is that part of me that goes, just like Benoit, ‘Okay, I can see that.’ People are shocked their friend or mentor is responsible for doing these horrible things. I guess I’m pragmatic and I looked at it like, ‘I can see that.’ It’s very hard to reconcile. I heard what Becky said. Vince is a father figure to a lot of people. Vince liked and developed those father relationships. That’s why he was always fascinated with me because I was like, ‘F**k you, I have a dad. You’re my boss. Let’s keep it that way.’ It’s been wild, all that s**t. It’s sad. He ruined his life ruining other people’s lives. There is very much a part of me, ‘You got him. Good. Shuffle him into the basement.’”