CM Punk fala da reacção de AJ Lee a ele entrar no UFC e se ainda quer lutar no main-event da Wrestlemania

CM Punk deu uma entrevista à Rolling Stone. Eis os highlights:

Have you been surprised by the range of reactions to your UFC signing?

I can't say it's gone as I expected. A few notable, big names in UFC have been extremely supportive. Whether they have ulterior motives is yet to be seen. I tend to tune out the negativity, and there's been a lot of positive stuff. I think a lot of people are curious, and I think a lot of people understand my mindset.

What convinced you UFC would be more positive for you than the WWE?

I'm not sure I did know. If I can maybe throw out an example of how things are different – the lack of communication from the WWE office was astounding. They said they suspended me and never contacted me. They were in my town, about an eight-minute drive from my house multiple times, and didn't feel like it was necessary to come try and talk to me, so I assumed that they didn't want to talk to me.

Then, you've got Dana and [UFC CEO] Lorenzo Fertitta wanting to talk to me, and they get on a jet and fly to Chicago to talk to me. So that pretty much told me exactly how Dana and Lorenzo do business. I'm sure there are other people out there who have different situations with them, but they're playing straight with me. And being backstage [at last Saturday's UFC 181] and introducing everybody to my wife, it was such a great experience. And I'm sure part of that is the name value and who I am, but everyone seemed to be happy, which is different and odd for me.

How did you convince your wife AJ to be on board, given the physical risks?

After I spoke with Dana and Lorenzo, that's when it got serious and that's when I brought it to her attention. Trust me, whatever nerves I'm gonna have stepping into the Octagon will pale in comparison to the nerves I had when I had to bring this up to my wife. I was honestly terrified. I was like, "She's gonna shut it down, and I'm gonna have to figure out a way to smooth it over so I can do this, because I don't take no for an answer, she doesn't take no for an answer, and this is something I really wanna do." Right off the bat she recognized that. She's been around me long enough to know that, ever since the first day I met her, this is something I talked about doing, and she's not somebody that's gonna step in front of her husband trying to accomplish something that he dreamed about.

Any idea where you'll be training?

I can't answer that right now. That's one of the things I've been most overwhelmed about, is the amount of people who've approached me privately or publicly and said, "Hey, train here." I don't know, 'cause the best gyms I have to travel to, and I'm not gonna travel back and forth. I need a home base. I'm gonna have to be somewhere where the gym's close so I can train twice a day. I'm sort of in a hurry to make that decision, but I'm also afforded a little bit of time, so we're gonna have to see what happens.

Is this all ultimately part of a bigger plan to build the business of Phil Brooks?

Sure, but that's not the sole purpose of doing it. Obviously, because it's such a high-profile move and all eyes are on me right now, yeah, why wouldn't you classify that as the building of a brand or a business? That's what it is. I could easily just not be doing interviews and telling people, "No, I'm gonna hole up here and train, and you're never gonna see me until I fight," but that's unrealistic. I think somewhere along the lines after I disappeared from WWE, people got this idea that I hate being famous. And if anybody is famous, they know that fame isn't really a thing. Fame is an apparition. Fame is a side effect of success. I did not wake up one day and say, "I wanna be famous." I did not wake up and say, "I wanna be a UFC fighter." I woke up and said, "I want to be successful at something I want to do. I want to fight."

And when it's all said and done, there's no part of you that pines for that WrestleMania main event one day?

No, absolutely not.