The day of the 2014 Royal Rumble, Punk said he showed the WWE Doctor the aforementioned lump on his back, which he described as huge and purple. "With teeth!", Cabana added. Punk was asked if it hurt and he said, "It hurt like a motherf***er" and to make it worse, it was right where his tights ran across his back, so now it couldn't be ignored as that position meant pain and a constabr reminder it was there. Punk said that it wasn't like can pop it because it's not like a zit.
The doc said that he would cut it out but Punk has to work The Rumble and, "He would want to put Punk on some antibiotics" before he did it. Punk commented, "Motherf***er, I've been on antibiotics since November. What are you doing? Just cut it right now" but the Doc wouldn't work on it.
Punk said he had to start the Rumble and work all the way to the end [He did close to an hour that night]. Down the line, he was looking at Kane, who he loved working, but he wanted to do something new. Punk said he was going to every single guy before the match and giving them something to do to him. He told a story of Rusev just wanting to come in and stomp him and Punk trying to tell him that no one is going to help him and they all want his spot, so he needs to debut with a big moment and pushed him to make it count and do something big to Punk.
Punk said he and Kofi Kingston sert up a spot with Kofi for when Kofi hit the ring and did his somersault into the leaping clothesline and that's where Punk got the concussion, which he made a point to tell Kofi, "If you are listening, I love you and it's OK."
Punk said he was rocked after and goes to the corner and tells the Doc, "I have a concussion." The doc said, "What do you want me to do?" Punk cursed at him and said he was going to catch his breath and continue. At some point, they sent Kane out early to put Punk through the table early and get him out and his reaction, after 15 years of being a pro wrestler is, "F*** you, I'm finishing this match. If Kane touches me, I'll f***ing quit."
They noted at how this sort of left Kane waiting around ringside trying not to be in the camera and while laughing about it, Punk said that he felt bad about that. Eventually, they do the angle and Punk is chokeslammed through a table, which means he took that bump after knowing and telling WWE he was concussed..
Punk said he went right to the back and the Doc checked on him. Punk said he immediately told him to cut the thing out his back right now. The Doc refused to cut it out, saying Punk was hurting from the concussion.
That night, he went to the next town and was laying in bed in the hotel, saying he knew he was "going to marry this woman' [AJ Lee, now his wife] but he hadn't asked her yet and wondered what he was doing with his life at this point.
Punk then talked about the Raw the day after The Rumble. He said that he went and was belligerent about taking the concussion test and was argumentative. He was told he had to take a piss test and that set him off, because they had amended the Wellness Policy so guys could work to remove their strikes to keep their jobs and, "keep using drugs."
Punk said he was getting mixed signals and stories as to whether he was working Raw that night or not and what he was doing and said, "I f***ing had it." Punk said he hated telling people to "f*** off" but he was at the breaking point.
Punk said that he was telling the company to take care of him right now and not worry about asking him to sign visas for future tours and take a piss test. He said that his ribs were broken, his knees are shot and he's hurt. He was saying, "F***ing help me!" and the reaction was that Punk had to do all these things they were asking him to do and not any concern about him when something was obviously wrong.
That's when he decided to go to Vince McMahon's office...
Due to the holiday, I'll have more from the interview - likely Sunday night, but if you want to listen to the entire interview on Colt Cabana's Art of Wrestling podcast, you can at www.ColtCabana.com, you can go to iTunes.com and subscribe to Cabana's podcast at this link to get the episode or you can listen to the episode embedded via Youtube on the front page of PWInsider via an account Colt Cabana has confirmed is an "endorsed" posting of the episode.
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