CM Punk addresses The Rock’s WWE return, has ‘different perspective’ than 10 years ago

Now that he’s older and WWE is a different place than it used to be, CM Punk has a changed perspective on part-time wrestlers like The Rock and John Cena.

Punk and Cena are set to share the ring once again when they both take part in the men’s Elimination Chamber match this Saturday. The winner earns a WrestleMania 41 title shot against Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes, who will also be appearing at Elimination Chamber in Toronto for a segment with The Rock.

While speaking with the Daily Mail, Punk was asked to give his thoughts on The Rock’s return given the critical comments he made when The Rock came back as a part-timer in the early 2010s, including taking a main event spot at WrestleMania 29 that could have gone to Punk.

Punk said he’s sure The Rock’s return will have an impact on everyone’s path to WrestleMania this year, but his perspective is different now than it was 10 years ago. One thing that’s changed Punk’s mindset is how reduced the WWE schedule is now. When everyone is working so many fewer dates, it’s difficult to be as critical about part-timers returning.

“I’m sure it will. I’m sure it’s going to trickle down and affect everybody,” Punk said about The Rock’s return impacting the road to WrestleMania. “I think one of the difficult parts of this being so big — and there’s so many moving parts, you’re seeing it with Cena now. Definitely, I have a different perspective now than I did 10 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 10 years ago, right? Like, I can’t point a finger at somebody else 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’s stated that he’s retiring, this is going to be his final run, so I’m less inclined to say, ‘You should be here doing this, doing that.’ Sometimes the tickets sell themselves when we’re in these international markets and you hear ‘John Cena retirement tour,’ that’s going to put butts on seats.

“John Cena doesn’t necessarily need to show up every week. He’s busy, he’s filming a movie, and I understand that, but there is a flip side to that coin where there is still a locker room full of pro wrestlers. And they will get a chip on their shoulder and there will be resentment because there are people that feel, ‘Oh, I’m here every week. I’m doing this, I’m doing this.’

“But, really, at the end of the day, I think everybody just constantly wants to rise to the level. So along the way, yeah, we’re going to poke, we’re going to prod, we’re going to say, ‘Hey, Rock, you showed up here, how come you’re not here? Why aren’t you doing this?’ I think the fans do that too, and I think they enjoy it when they see us do it too.”

Punk also believes that The Rock returning as The Final Boss rather than a happy-go-lucky babyface makes things different than they were a decade ago.

“There’s no denying what a giant box office star The Rock is,” Punk said. “I think peeling back a little bit and being Final Boss instead of happy-go-lucky Rock, I think that is a character that can say, ‘Yeah, I’m not here all the time. So what? I’ll show up for eight minutes every six months and it’ll still be the biggest thing.’

“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.”

It will be Punk vs. Cena vs. Drew McIntyre vs. Logan Paul vs. Damian Priest vs. Seth Rollins in the men’s Chamber match on Saturday. The PLE is taking place from Rogers Centre in Toronto with a start time of 7 p.m. Eastern.