CM Punk Explains Changed View on WWE Part-Timers (Like The Rock)

The CM Punk who left WWE more than a decade ago isn’t the one that’s on television every week. Now much older, he has a renewed outlook on the professional wrestling business as his career winds down. Last summer John Cena announced his 2025 WWE retirement tour at the same time The Rock returned for another run.

The Rock’s presence in particular rocked the WWE Universe last April when it looked like he was taking Cody Rhodes’ spot at WrestleMania 40. This created the unforgettable “#WeWantCody” movement that swept social media. Punk admits that his view on part-timers now is much different than it was a decade ago.

CM Punk on The Rock and John Cena

“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,” Punk told Mail Sport (h/t: Fightful). “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 [more] 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 then discussed The Rock and how his ‘Final Boss’ character allows him to show up on a whim. “There’s no denying what a giant box office star The Rock is,” Punk continued. “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].”