CM Punk wasn't protesting Antonio Cesaro being left off WrestleMania 29 at presser, says Stone Cold Steve Austin feud is all in fun

It's WrestleMania week and that means WWE is pulling out all the stops with Axxess in New Jersey, the city that plays host to this Sunday night's (April 7, 2013) WrestleMania 29 pay-per-view (PPV) extravaganza at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford. That also means plenty of media access for interviews and some of the folks on the ground are getting a few good nuggets.

Like CM Punk telling smart marks "fuck you."

He's had much more to say, though, including revealing the reason he wore that awesome Antonio Cesaro shirt at the WrestleMania 29 press conference just yesterday. Was it in silent protest of the United States champion not having a match scheduled for the card? The Chad Dukes Wrestling Show gets the answer:

"It was a clean shirt that I grabbed and I wore that day. It's not some sort of silent protest because he's not on 'Mania, although I will go on record right now that it's absolutely ridiculous that he doesn't have a match at WrestleMania. I will pimp that guy until the cows come home. He's awesome. He's everything that the WWE should want in their superstars. He's tremendous. He can wrestle, he's a brick house, he's looks the part, he acts the part, he walks and talks that part. He can speak seven different languages! You're missing the boat on this guy."

We disagree with Punk on quite a few issues but you won't find us arguing with his take on this one. Cesaro is a rock star in the making, but it's hard to make a rock star when you're not showcasing him on the biggest stage possible.

That leads to another point he makes on how things are run with Vince McMahon in charge of the company:

"This is not my company; if it was it would be run very differently and I'm not saying that the way Vince does things is 100% right or 100% wrong all the time and I'm not saying that I know the answer to everything. Vince does what he thinks is best for business and he's right a lot of the time and there's just sometimes I think he's missing the boat on stuff, Cesaro being one of them. Barrett's another good one. I think we start and stop guys too much. They did it with me forever; they did it with Sheamus forever. You're the flavor of the month. You're doing this, you're doing that, and then you just kind of get shuffled to the back. I don't think anybody can truly organically grow and become these superstars that they say they're looking for when you start and stop guys all the time. But it's just a difference of opinion on how the business is."

Again, hard to disagree.

Last but not least, Punk was, of course, asked about his feud with Stone Cold Steve Austin and his response will surely disappoint fans hoping to one day see a match between the two:

"It's never been really acknowledged within the WWE. This isn't me trying to promote something that isn't there, but there was just this hilarious tension in the room when me and Steve were in there. It's funny to actually be in a room live, everybody else is uncomfortable except me and Steve. There's this weird magnetism. It's this unspoken thing. The only way I can describe it, and Paul Heyman completely 100% agrees, it's the Old West and there's the two gunfighters - and they're buddies - but everybody always goes "I wonder what would happen...what if?" And that's all it is. It's fun."

Sorry!

Click here to hear the interview and read more.