CM Punk says Vince McMahon would “spit on the ground” if Paul Heyman was mentioned backstage
While speaking to the ALL THE SMOKE Unplugged podcast ahead of WWE WrestleMania 42, CM Punk reflected on his 2011 pipebomb promo…
“I did not dwell on it. I did not have days or weeks to think about it. I literally walked out there—I was out the door mentally. I was so checked out. And then for him [Vince McMahon] to say, ‘I want you to air your grievances,’ and for me to just go, ‘No, you don’t—you don’t want that.’
Because I know if I wrote that all down or explained what I was going to say, he’d be like, ‘No, you can’t say that. You can’t mention Paul backstage.’ If you mentioned Paul Heyman in a conversation, he would spit on the ground—he did not want you mentioning it. It didn’t make any sense to him.
But I didn’t say anything in that promo that wasn’t something that was already highlighted on our television show, except for maybe dropping a New Japan/Ring of Honor reference. But my fans knew what I was talking about, and that was just enough peek behind the curtain to get people to go, ‘What is he talking about? Oh wait—he’s not supposed to say this.’
So yeah, that’s the line. I try not to leap over it—I just kind of step over it. Then you toe it, and you go back and forth, and you craft that.
And it didn’t take long. It literally just spilled out—almost freestyle.
Well, a lot of it was. One of the things is when I waved at the camera and said, ‘Oh, I’m breaking the fourth wall,’ it’s because I lost my train of thought. The adrenaline hit me at that moment.”