"He thought he was the star over John Cena" - Wrestling veteran sheds light on former AEW World Champion's WWE exit (Exclusive)
The wrestling world has seen very few stars reach the levels that John Cena did. However, two-time AEW World Champion CM Punk believed he was a bigger star, and that played a part in his WWE exit 7 years back, according to wrestling veteran Dutch Mantell.
CM Punk never main-evented a single WrestleMania, and a case could be made for the Second City Saint's greatness and popularity warranting at least one. The leader of Cenation closed the Grandest Stage of them All five times over the course of his career.
Speaking on Sportskeeda Wrestling's Smack Talk, the former Zeb Colter said the following about CM Punk's exit:
"See I was there and WWE when Punk was still there. Actually the night that he talked to Vince all night long was the night I was trying to talk to him too... But since Punk was in there and they were going back and forth, I guess. It just took all night, Punk didn't even have his segment that night and they kept talking and talking talking... and so I remember and that was the night he quit. So, and the scuttlebutt in WWE at that time was what the hell is that Punk so upset about? Because he thought he was the star over John Cena and he was going to tell Vince that he needed this this spot on WrestleMania. But no one star is bigger than the whole story." [19:36 - 20:47]
John Cena main-evented WrestleMania 29 over CM Punk
CM Punk was on a historic run as the WWE Champion, with his reign spanning over a year. John Cena and The Rock main-evented WrestleMania 28 in one of the biggest events in sporting history.
Wrestling Throwback
Kane is attacked by CM Punk while paying respects to Paul Bearer.
This was part of The Undertaker/CM Punk feud heading in to Wrestlemania 29. https://t.co/cuTt9pCpgS
However, once The Rock challenged the Voice of the Voiceless at Royal Rumble 2013, it was evident that WWE wanted to repeat the previous year's main event at the Show of the Immortals. The Brahma Bull won the title and faced John Cena at WrestleMania 29, while CM Punk ended up facing The Undertaker instead, despite having a solid case to be in the main event,
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