CM Punk Gets Emotional Talking What WWE Locker Room Means To Him
An emotional CM Punk has opened up about how much he loves being a part of the current WWE locker room.
The 2024 WWE Royal Rumble was the first time CM Punk competed in a televised WWE match match in ten years. After walking out of WWE due to frustrations and other factors in January 2014, Punk was back “home” in a WWE ring along with some of the biggest names in the company.
Punk found himself in the final four of the Royal Rumble with Cody Rhodes, Drew McIntyre, and Intercontinental Champion GUNTHER. During an exchange where McIntyre gave Punk a DDT, Punk’s right forearm hit the mat and he tore his triceps. Punk kept fighting, eventually making it to the final two with Rhodes, who threw Punk out to win his second straight Royal Rumble.
Two days after the Royal Rumble, CM Punk started Monday Night Raw to announce that he had torn his triceps and will likely miss about half a year due to the injury. Punk was mocked and attacked by Drew McIntyre to set up a future rivalry assuming McIntyre stays in WWE long term.
In the days leading up to the Royal Rumble and after his injury, WWE cameras followed CM Punk in a live vlog that was posted on their YouTube channel. In a video posted by WWE, the former WWE World Champion Punk spoke about what it meant for him to be back in the locker room.
“Just certain looks from certain people I get, and then I start crying again. And Cody’s one of them. He’s a great dude.”
“This locker room is everything the business is supposed to be. It’s everything the business was sold to me as being and it’s remarkable, and that’s why I’m so sad. I’m not sad I hurt my arm, I’m sad I’m temporarily out of this amazing situation.”
CM Punk Discusses Support From His Wife
In 2014, CM Punk married former WWE Divas Champion AJ Lee, who many fans believe is a future Hall of Famer just like he is. The torn triceps injury is something that Punk also suffered in September 2022 when he worked for AEW and it took him about nine months to return to the ring. It’s a long road back as Punk spoke about how his wife AJ Lee (April Mendez) reacted to his injury as well as getting support from his beloved dog Larry.
“I mean, she (AJ Lee) just says, ‘come home, I want to give you a hug.’ You know? She said that I’m sad. She’s sad that I’m hurt. You have this weird guilt thing where, like, I’m apologizing to her and I’m like, ‘hey, sorry I’m putting you through this again’, you know because she’s just constantly been there through every surgery, I wake up and she’s there.”
“I don’t want to ever make her worry or put her in a situation that makes her feel sad. So, ‘we’ve been here before’ is what she said. She’s like ‘you know, me and Larry got your back, we’re gonna do everything we can to help you, nurse you back to health’ and she’s like ‘this is this is who CM Punk is. This is who you are. You don’t let stuff stop you. You always come back bigger and stronger’. She’s going to make sure that happens again.”
Best wishes to CM Punk in his recovery from the torn triceps injury. Hopefully he can be back in a WWE ring later this year.