CM Punk spoke with fans in a 90-minute interview panel on Saturday at the Starrcast III event and was asked a number of questions about his time wrestling in the WWE. Early on in the interview the former WWE Champion said he doesn’t miss being in the WWE, since he accomplished pretty much everything he wanted to do while working in the company for nearly a decade. But when asked if there was any wrestler he wish he had locked up with just once during his time that never happened, he had an answer — “Stone Cold” Steve Austin.
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Punk recalled a moment back in either 2011 when he asked Austin backstage if he’d be willing to storm out to the ring during a dark match and nail him with a Stunner. Austin surprisingly agreed, and it turned into a segment where Austin nailed Punk, Miz and Sheamus all with stunners to send the crowd home happy.
The moment put the idea in Punk’s mind to push for a match with the “Texas Rattlesnake.”
“That’s when I started prying and being like, ‘Let’s work this match motherf—er, let’s go!’ I think there was a sliver of time where it was going to happen,” Punk said. “And then the next minute it didn’t.”
Punk mentioned this was right around the time his first WWE contract was about to expire, leading to his famous feud with John Cena and his WWE Championship victory at Money in the Bank. Leading up to that match, Punk had a backstage promo with Austin on an episode of Raw that teased a potential feud between the two. He then wore an Austin shirt for his famous “Pipe Bomb” promo on Cena, essentially connecting himself to Austin forever.
Unfortunately that match never happened, as Austin’s neck issues have prevented him from making any kind of comeback since his last match at WrestleMania XIX. Meanwhile Punk walked out on the WWE back in early 2014 and was handed a pink slip on the same day as his wedding later that year. Punk stated that things might have gone differently if people within the company had reached out to him at any point during his absence and two-month suspension, but he claims nobody ever did. With the exception of a few random run-ins under a mask in various independent promotions, Punk has not been active in a wrestling ring since.
