CM Punk Praises Brock Lesnar for His Current WWE Workload

Brock Lesnar's role in the WWE has been a contentious talking point among fans in recent years. Even when "The Beast" is a reigning world champion, his appearances on television are few and far between and his matches, which often times can be incredibly short, take place just once every few months. And yet when the subject of Lesnar came up on WWE Backstage this week, analyst and former WWE Champion CM Punk said he sympathized with Lesnar's reluctancy to wrestle consistently on WWE's grueling schedule.

"Brock is like me," Punk said. "He works once a month and he's smart about his time and doesn't want to wrestle for an hour."

Unlike previous Royal Rumble events, Lesnar will enter the Men's Royal Rumble match this Sunday despite already being the reigning WWE Champion. He'll start from the No. 1 spot, which could either mean he'll be eliminated quickly or wind up staying in the match for 40+ minutes. The latest betting odds give Lesnar a solid 6/1 chance of winning, which puts him just behind Roman Reigns (the favorite) and Drew McIntyre (9/2).

Lesnar kicked off his fifth reign as WWE Champion when he beat Kofi Kingston in just eight seconds at SmackDown's FOX premiere. He's since defended it against Cain Velasquez and Rey Mysterio on pay-per-view.

As of Sunday afternoon 26 of the 30 competitors in the Men's Rumble match have been announced. One of the surprises for those remaining four spots has seemingly already been spoiled, as a photo of MVP's logo appeared on the Titantron at Minute Maid Park on Saturday.

Check out the full Rumble card below:

• WWE Universal Championship: Bray Wyatt vs. Daniel Bryan (Strap Match)
• Raw Women's Championship: Becky Lynch vs. Asuka
• SmackDown Women's Championship: Bayley vs. Lacey Evans
• United States Championship: Andrade vs. Humberto Carrillo
• Roman Reigns vs. King Corbin (Falls Count Anywhere)
• Shorty G vs. Sheamus
• Men's Royal Rumble — Winner gets a world championship match at WrestleMania 36 (Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns, AJ Styles, Erick Rowan, Randy Orton, Rey Mysterio, Ricochet, Drew McInytre, Elias, King Corbin, Dolph Ziggler, Otis, Tucker, Rusev, Bobby Lashley, Aleister Black, Buddy Murphy, Braun Strowman, Shinsuke Nakamura, Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens, Samoa Joe, Kofi Kingston, Big E, R-Truth, John Morrison, The Miz, TBA)
• Women's Royal Rumble — Winner gets a women's championship match at WrestleMania 36 (Chralotte Flair, Alexa Bliss, Nikki Cross, Sarah Logan, Natalya, Carmella, Dana Brooke, TBA)