This past Saturday night, Cody Rhodes accomplished the seemingly impossible with back-to-back WWE Royal Rumble victories. His win did not come easy, however, as he had to contend with top names like WWE Intercontinental Champion GUNTHER, Sami Zayn, and CM Punk. The latter of which was Rhodes’ final opponent in the multi-man contest, and revealed to fans two days later on WWE Raw that he had been injured in the bout. While Rhodes will have his choice of champions to mainevent the biggest show of the year, Punk will be watching it from his couch.
Following his address to the fans this past Monday night on WWE Raw, Punk sat down with a WWE camera to give even more tearful commentary on the situation.
“It hasn’t been an easy 48 hours, but I always try to, you know, look at things from a couple of different perspectives, you know? My perspective is, this is a drag. I tore my tricep, you know? I just came back to the company in November. First televised match back, get hurt, you know? Surgery Thursday. But in the grand scheme of things, you know, like, just a bump in the road. I’ve been here before. Just my heart hurts, you know?
“Telling the fans, being upfront about it. And speaking from such, like, an emotionally charged point of view, you know, like, that’s where the connection is because I truly do believe, like, this sucks. It really f-cking sucks. But is it? Is it the end of the world? No. And I think about my buddy Chad. You know? Like that’s, that’s a f-cking rough situation. This? I’m an athlete who got hurt. Big f-cking deal. You know? I’ll deal with it. Move on, and come back bigger, better, maybe not faster, but stronger. You know, get back to business.
“I’m very careful about saying, like, you know, where you work is your family because I think your family is your family, and where you work is your job. But it’s been a great support system, you know? And just certain looks from certain people I get, and then I start crying again, you know, and Cody is one of them. You know, he’s, he’s a great dude, this locker room is, is everything the business is supposed to be and is 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.”
The footage then cuts to Punk speaking about how his wife, AJ Mendez, aka former WWE star AJ Lee, is taking the news about his injury.
“I mean, she just says, ‘Come home; I want to give you a hug.’ You know? She’s sad that I’m sad. She’s sad that I’m hurt. You know? Like, you have this weird guilt thing where, like, I’m apologizing or, and I’m like, ‘Hey, sorry, I’m putting you through this again,’ you know? Because she’s just constantly been through every surgery, you know like 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, and we’re gonna do everything we can to help you and nurse you back to health, and she’s like, ‘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 gonna make sure that happens again.”
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