“I beat that 41-year-old youngster fair & square” - CM Punk reacts to WWE title win over Sami Zayn

CM Punk made an appearance on Stephanie McMahon’s podcast.

After a prolonged absence since April, CM Punk made a surprising return during last week’s Monday Night Raw in Chicago to replace Cody Rhodes in the Undisputed title match. Rhodes was unable to get medical clearance after a backstage attack by Gunther.

Punk not only replaced Rhodes, but managed to pin Zayn in a grueling match to win the Undisputed for the first time since his return. Punk is now set to defend the title against the former Champion and number one contender Cody Rhodes at SummerSlam.

The match was confirmed during Punk’s return to SmackDown last week as the WWE Champion for the first time in 13 years. The newly crowned Champion also made an appearance on Stephanie McMahon’s podcast, where he reacted to winning the title in front of his home crowd.

CM Punk fires back at fan backlash on his title win

In his appearance on Stephanie McMahon’s What’s Your Story? podcast, Punk reacted to his title win against Sami Zayn. “I’m flabbergasted at that,” he said about winning the Undisputed Title almost 15 years to the day from when he won the WWE Title at Money in the Bank 2011 against John Cena. 

“Just how we drew it up. Just how we planned it, Yeah, what a coincidence. People say that there’s no such thing as coincidence but, that’s pretty remarkable. That’s interesting.”

Punk also addressed criticism from those who claimed he was doing something he had previously opposed, a veteran returning and winning the title at the expense of a younger talent.

“Oh. I won the title. Clean. I beat that 41-year-old youngster fair and square in the middle of the ring, Punk laughed, I’m guilty of doing what I — what was it?”

During the appearance, Punk also addressed the rise of A.I. when McMahon’s co-host presented what she believed were genuine tweets from WWE stars about Punk, but he realized they were A.I.-generated.

“This is why I don’t f*ck with social media. This is like A.I. generated. These are fake quotes. Seth (Rollins) did not tweet this, Becky (Lynch) did not tweet this. This is a double-edged sword about most people in our business but especially me, and I do not say this lightly, these are mentally ill people.

I couldn’t imagine making up fake tweets… But I think the problem — and it’s not just in our business — I think it’s a societal thing is people will instantly see that and they believe it, and I don’t know how to change people’s minds about that, which is why I lean into ‘I don’t care about changing anybody’s mind about that.’

I’m in a business of toying with people’s emotions so if somebody’s gonna read that and they’re gonna believe it, that helps me in a way. But, there’s also Phil who walks through parking lots with his wife who has his head on a swivel because those people are out there. It’s interesting.”

[H/T: Fightful]

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