Alberto Del Rio and CM Punk have something in common; they both left WWE on bad terms. Del Rio’s situation is different than that of Punk’s because Del Rio left with a ton of controversy. That and Del Rio was fired for slapping a WWE employee. Since that day, Del Rio has made appearances for different wrestling promotions, showing that he is very happy doing what he is now.
CM Punk came out with his controversial comments about his WWE exit last week, and the wrestling world is still buzzing about it. After the fact, different superstars began to respond to Punk one-by-one. Ryback and the Road Dogg were two of the most popular.
Alberto Del Rio caught wind of the podcast and felt the need to insert his opinion. Del Rio did a “shoot” interview and included CM Punk’s departure as one of the topics.
“He [Punk] went from driving 1000 miles to get 30 dollars, and he made it to the big stage,” Del Rio said. “But there was one day he wasn’t happy what was going on. I had a match with Kofi Kingston that night for Raw, and it was only to be 8 minutes. Mike Chioda approached me and said ‘We need for you to do another 14 minutes.’ He’s [ CM Punk ] a guy that believes what he’s saying, what he’s thinking, and because of that he has all of the respect in the world [from me].”
Del Rio was very candid when talking about Punk. It’s not like he has to answer to the WWE about his true feelings because, right now, Del Rio is a free-agent in the professional wrestling industry. There is a chance that Del Rio might end up in Lucha Underground in the near future.
His comments about Punk were overshadowed by the Stone Cold Steve Austin podcast that included Vince McMahon, WWE CEO and Chairman. McMahon apologized to Punk and commented about the disgruntled former-WWE champion. Del Rio made some great points about Punk that many WWE fans forget to mention.
Punk began wrestling when he was a teenager. Right now, he is 36-years old and entering the latter-stages of his athletic career. Even if Punk never left the WWE, his career was winding down anyway. His body was wearing down, and Punk wrestled through most of his injuries.
This isn’t a platform to praise CM Punk or the WWE, but Del Rio was the only one to bring up those points about Punk. As someone who will work the Independents for a while, Del Rio has a better understanding than most.
[Image via WWE.com]