CM Punk spoke with TNT Sport at UFC 298 on Saturday night about his recovery from torn triceps, The Rock’s return for WWE WrestleMania 40, his own WWE return, and other topics. Here are some highlights:
On the injury derailing WrestleMania plans:
You know, fingers crossed? Yeah, I was gonna headline WrestleMania. Obviously, now I’m not, but it’s sports. It’s what happens to athletes, like I mentally I think it’s harder because the physical pain is whatever, but I look at it just like a bump in the road. You know, this is an occupational hazard. It happens. And I’ll be back bigger and better.
On the timeframe for his recovery:
“Yeah, well, I’m a clumsy idiot. I tore my left tricep about two years ago. So, the right one was jealous. I’m like, I’m like an old car. I’m like a 72 Nova, you know what I mean? We have to, we have to change some parts every now and again. So once we fix up all the parts, the engine is still strong. We’ll still be good to go. We’re thinking maybe six to eight months, but I’m not really in a rush to get back to compete. I’m in a rush to get healthy. I’m in a rush to get better. And the sooner I do that, the better. I’ll be when I come back. “
On the itch to return to WWE:
“I answered this question earlier tonight. I think it’s just time. Timing is everything. You know, I wrestled for a very long time before I signed a WWE contract. And I was on the road for ten years. Zero time off. That takes its toll. I think one of the things that I never did before was trying to balance everything out. And I think a lot of fighters, a lot of wrestlers do that, balance is kind of key. But when you’re young, and you want to go, and you have to take every opportunity that comes your way, you can’t say no. And then, after a while, you burn out. So I burnt out 10 years ago, I left and did some other things. I got to do a lot of cool other stuff. Time heals all wounds. You slowly start to realize that, like, a lot of this stuff that happened 10 years ago doesn’t matter. Different people come and go, different people are in charge now. Maybe I can go back and, you know, it kind of fits like an old slipper, and it’s good to be back, and I’m super happy it happened, and the way I came back and how big it’s been never could have been what it was without all the other crap, right. So that’s just life like I woke up this morning. So it’s a good day.”
On The Rock’s return:
“I think it’s fantastic. Ten years ago, I was the guy that was wrestling The Rock when he came back, and now ten years later, he’s coming back, and I think the landscape has completely changed, right? WrestleMania is two nights now. It’s even bigger. Him coming back only helps. I always say high tide raises all ships. So I’m just happy that even though I’m hurt, I’m still gonna kinda be in the mix. My mouth still works, so I’m gonna still be able to talk some trash. I don’t know if you saw the kickoff we did in Vegas with Rock and Roman and Seth and Cody. It was a lot of fun and I hope to just continue to do that while I’m recuperating because I can always just talk trash with the best of them. It’s the best part. It’s what I do.”
