WWE star CM Punk recently appeared on an episode of Ariel Helwani’s MMA Hour, where he talked about a number of topics including the sexual assault and trafficking allegations against Vince McMahon.
Punk said, “There is no positivity there. I didn’t read all the allegations. I read text messages. I went, ‘Oh, f**k this.’ It’s indefensible. The easiest thing for people to do is ignore it or avoid it. It’s there. My initial, first thing out of my mouth was, ‘I’m kind of shocked at how dumb he was writing stuff down and leaving that paper trail.’ It’s horrific. At this point, all the energy should be used to, I don’t know if you can, but make reparations or amends. There are victims here. What CM Punk thinks about Vince and the CM Punk-Vince relationship doesn’t f***ing mean anything. All that stuff takes a backseat. I’m more concerned about going forward, how do those people survive after suffering all of that trauma? That’s my biggest concern.”
On if the business is better off without McMahon:
“At this point, how do you say anything but yes, the business is better without him.”
On if he ever had any idea of this type of behavior from McMahon:
“No. The biggest thing I can draw a comparison to is when Chris Benoit did a murder-suicide. I was friends with Chris Benoit. I don’t know if it’s just how I process things, but I’m famously on camera weeping, saying goodbye to Chris because, at the time, we didn’t know. We didn’t know he had murdered his wife and son. The week prior, we’re in Alabama, I’m traveling with him, we’re on the road, and he grabs me and runs me into the trainer’s room, he points and his son is in the corner taping up his hands and drawing Xs on his hands. Coming to terms with, that’s my friend, he did this horrible thing. Obviously, f**k him, f**k that. I don’t have memories of Chris Benoit traveling with me and murdering people at the gym. There was never any instances where I was in a room with Vince and he’s shitting on somebody or sexually assaulting somebody. We just didn’t see it. There is that part of me that goes, just like Benoit, ‘Okay, I can see that.’ People are shocked their friend or mentor is responsible for doing these horrible things. I guess I’m pragmatic and I looked at it like, ‘I can see that.’ It’s very hard to reconcile. I heard what Becky said. Vince is a father figure to a lot of people. Vince liked and developed those father relationships. That’s why he was always fascinated with me because I was like, ‘F**k you, I have a dad. You’re my boss. Let’s keep it that way.’ It’s been wild, all that shit. It’s sad. He ruined his life ruining other people’s lives. There is very much a part of me, ‘You got him. Good. Shuffle him into the basement.’”
You can check out Punk’s comments in the video below.
(H/T to Fightful for transcribing the above quotes)
