CM Punk was critical of The Rock coming in when he had free time to WWE over a decade ago while he pursued a Hollywood career. Punk was still in the trenches of being on the road for nearly 300 days a year as a full-time star.
While speaking with Inside The Ropes, CM Punk was asked about The Rock’s recent WWE return on last week’s SmackDown and its potential impact on his storyline.
Punk compared The Rock’s 2013 return and the WWE Championship win over Punk at the Royal Rumble. Punk put over Rock a second time at the Elimination Chamber.
“I’m sure it will. I’m sure it’s gonna trickle down and affect everybody. I think one of the difficult parts of this being so big and there’s so many moving parts, and you’re seeing it with [John] Cena now. Definitely, I have a different perspective now than I did ten years ago, when I was working with The Rock. It was easy for everybody to say, ‘You’re not here. We’re grinding, we’re doing this.’ The schedule now is so much limited than it was ten years ago. I can’t point a finger at somebody else now and say, ‘Well, you’re not here.’ Plus, a guy like John Cena, to me, he’s a busy dude. He’s earned that right. He’s stated that he’s retiring. This is going to be his final run. So I’m less inclined to say, ‘You should be here doing this, doing that.’ Sometimes, the tickets sell themselves when we’re in these international markets, and you hear ‘John Cena retirement tour,’ that’s gonna put butts in seats.”
Punk continued, “John Cena doesn’t necessarily need to show up every week. He’s busy filming a movie, and I understand that. But there’s a flip side to that coin where there is still a locker room full of pro wrestlers, and they will get a chip on their shoulder, and there will be resentment because there are people that feel, ‘Oh, I’m here every week. I’m doing this, I’m doing this.’ But really at the end of the day, I think everybody just wants to rise to that level, and along the way, yeah, we’re gonna poke, we’re gonna prod. We’re gonna say, ‘Hey, Rock. You showed up here. How come you’re not here? Why aren’t you doing this?’ I think the fans do that too. I think they enjoy it when they see us do it, too. There’s no denying what a giant box office star The Rock is. I think peeling back a little bit and him being ‘Final Boss’ instead of being happy-go-lucky Rock, I think that is a character that can say, ‘Yeah, I’m not here all the time. Yeah, so what? I’ll show up for eight minutes every six months, and it’ll still be the biggest.’ I think there’s freedom, and there’s an air to play with that a little bit, and it makes it better and more real and more exciting for everybody. But yeah, piss off for not being here every week, guys. Come on [laughs].”
The two have grown to become friends with each other. The Rock famously called Punk a few years ago after he had departed from the company while standing in the middle of the ring after a Raw event. Punk is set to compete in the Men’s Elimination Chamber, while The Rock will be at the show to hear Cody Rhodes’ alliance question.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit Inside The Ropes with an h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
