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WWE on Fox Releases Video of CM Punk’s WWE Backstage Appearance, Punk Comments (VIDEO)

TJR Wrestling

A new video was posted by the WWE on Fox social media and Youtube accounts that gave us some behind the scenes footage of CM Punk leading up to his appearance on WWE Backstage this past Tuesday night.

Here’s a recap of the video. Thank you to WrestlingInc for the transcript of Punk’s comments as well.

Punk was shown getting into the car at 7:01pm PT and Punk was asked if he was nervous.

“Um, yeah, I wouldn’t even be able to tell you with a straight face that I wasn’t nervous at all. It’s a space that I haven’t been in 5,6 years, compounded by the fans who have always clamored for me to come back to this space, so even if it’s not me actually wrestling, it feels like a big deal, you know? But nerves are good. If you’re not nervous, that means you don’t care enough to make it entertaining. I plan on making this very entertaining.”

Punk talked about what he thought the WWE Backstage role would be about.

“So when the idea was broached, like, would you… I originally thought it was going to be like a commentary gig. Honestly, like I would call wrestling matches and I didn’t know how receptive I was gonna be to that idea. When they told me it was going to be like an analyst, and it was described by FOX executives as, ‘We have A-Rod for baseball, we have Troy Aikman for football, we now have WWE’s property starting in November, we’re going to have an analyst show, and we would have you. You would be the ‘expert’ to speak on things because your authority is, you were there, you did it all, you can talk about it.’ And that interested me very much so. We met, we did like a test run. I was honest about it, I didn’t hide from it in the media, and now here we are.”

The video showed Punk arriving at Fox Studios in Los Angeles at 7:44pm PT as the car pulled into the building.

Punk: “Well, we’re here. We’re on the lot. We’re still playing this pretty close to the cuff. So, I don’t know how secretive we have to be, but we’re going to pretend like I’m the real big deal here. Cover my face.”

Punk’s face really was covered as he walked into the building: “For the first time, I will say yes. I will admit that this is kind of a big thing.”

They showed Punk walking into a room in the studios. Punk was watching Booker T. and Mick Foley talking about Adam Cole. They covered Punk up again.

Punk walked over to the WWE Backstage set: “We are 13 minutes away from clobbering time (laughs). It’s been a while, my watch still works through. Starting to feel a little nervous. It’s pretty cool though, it’s a good nervous. Butterflies.”

Punk had a strong statement about what this moment would mean: “I’m not gonna break the internet, I’m gonna break the world.”

That led to Renee Young announcing that there was a big surprise, Punk’s “Cult of Personality” music hit and he walked onto the set.

Paige had a funny line: “Is this a rib? Holy crap. You guys don’t want me to cuss and you do this. Come on.”

Punk spoke to the camera: “It’s as simple as this. Just when they think they got the answers, I change the culture. I’ll see you here next week.” Punk turned to greet the others and that was the end of WWE Backstage.

The end of the video was a group photo with Punk posing along with WWE Backstage hosts Renee Young and Booker T along with the guests Paige, Samoa Joe, Adam Cole and Mick Foley, who commented that he did not see this coming.

You can watch the 7:56 video below.

Punk’s debut on WWE Backstage as a panelist will be next Tuesday night on Fox Sports 1.

Analysis: Cool video. I liked Punk’s candid thoughts at the start of it and it was nice to see Fox/WWE were successful in keeping it as a surprise right until Punk walked onto the set.