Though he does sound delusional and angry that the crowd still accepts guys like The Rock and Brock...he hates that Rock is such a fukking draw.
I didn't get this at all from the interview. I feel that he hates how WWE uses guys like The Rock and Brock, but not the fact that they're draws in and of themselves.
What a fukking interview this was. I mean, we knew about the WWE's star system, how they steal ideas from people, and even the health issues (Bob Holly had a similar issue with a staph infection and they still had him work a European tour with it), but not in this detail. Even before he got to the MRSA issues, the story about how he got "cleared" to wrestle after his elbow surgery and he didn't know until Michael Hayes came up to him was something else. The concussion issues don't surprise me (by the way, the Sports Legacy Institute loses all credibility for putting Hunter on its board after listening to this shyt) and the way Punk's in-ring work nosedived after his match with Lesnar suddenly makes a lot more sense, but the way they fukked up the treatment of his infection was appalling (reminds me of Eric Lindros nearly getting killed by his team trainer's negligence, for those who follow Hockey).
The stuff about the way they kept working him isn't surprising either, but it only becomes something to notice when you place it slightly outside of a wrestling context. For both fans and wrestlers, you're
supposed to kill yourself for the company and for the love of the business, but when you take that attitude and put it into nearly any other context, it's madness to even consider thinking that way. Given that it only got him disappointment, constant leapfrogging in the pecking order for part-timers and John Cena, and a broken body courtesy of Ryback (boy that was one hell of a burial...), I'm not sure you can see it as anything other than the height of insanity. Punk realized this and decided it wasn't worth it. Good for him.
Oh, and Triple H is who we thought he was. Nothing new there.
Based on this side of the story, Punk was completely in the right in every decision he made after the Royal Rumble, and I don't EVER expect him back in a wrestling ring again. Ever. Getting fired on your wedding day (how fukking callous is that? Guarantee that it was a Hunter move, too) will do that.
Good on Punk for leaving that hellhole, and best of luck to him.
Edit: Forgot to mention this, but it's important: it's both shocking and completely unsurprising to me that Punk was the only one asking questions about his pay. We get reports from Meltzer and others constantly about dwindling house show payouts, and yet Punk's the only one asking questions. I know that the nature of wrestling fandom and the business itself conditions guys to question nothing about the workings of the business, but when it comes to something as fundamental as basic house show pay and PPV bonuses post-Network, no one but Punk is asking questions? Ridiculous. And ridiculous of WWE to not have that figured out before launching the network (though I have half a mind to say that they were just going to eliminate the bonuses and cut their pay). Hopefully, the workers learn something from this and start asking questions about just
how they're pay is calculated.