CM Punk told the MMA Hour yesterday that he would be getting a live microphone and would be able to say whatever he pleased, teasing something along the lines of his infamous "shoot" promo on Monday Night Raw in June 2011. But he also teased revealing what his injury status actually is and whether or not he would be taking time off like he's been rumored to for so long now.
Well, above is the video of his segment on Raw last night in Greenville, South Carolina, and it's powerful to say the least.
"For 434 days as WWE champion I couldn't enjoy the ride because I was always looking around the corner at what was next. The WWE championship meant the world to me, it was everything. I dedicated my life to attain it. But I wanted that next challenge and I found that challenge in The Rock. And as I battled somebody who will arguably go down as one of the greatest superstars of all time, I still wanted more and I looked to tomorrow. I wanted to know what the next hurdle in my career was because I'm never satisfied with what I'm doing. I always want to do better, I always want to be bigger, I always want more.
"So after being champion for 434 days, where do you go? After battling the most electrifying man in sports entertainment, where do you go? And I looked to the one thing that could possibly be bigger than the championship I love so much, the one thing that would be bigger than wrestling The Rock, and that was taking on the streak at WrestleMania.
"And I pushed the Undertaker to the limit..."
Punk does a hell of a job playing up how devastated he is at the path his career has taken. From being champion for 434 days in a row to losing to The Rock in back-to-back matches and falling short of defeating Undertaker at WrestleMania. This superstar who always strives to be bigger and better has been reduced to the cold, crushing realization that he's really no different than anyone else.
His reaction to that, and Paul Heyman's reaction to Punk's reaction, made this an outstanding few minutes of television.
If only the rest of Raw was like this.
For complete results and the live blog from the show click here.