CM Punk Tells Backstage Story About The Shield and TLC in WWE

CM Punk returned to his good friend Colt Cabana's podcast, Art of Wrestling, to follow up on the previous episode in which Punk detailed his departure from WWE. The second episode was all about closing this chapter in Punk's life and moving onto the next one, but of course he had some more comments about his time in the wrestling business, and one of the backstage stories he told was about The Shield, Roman Reigns, and WWE's approach to storytelling.

Here's what Punk had to say about his 3-on-1 handicap match with The Shield at TLC 2013 (transcribed by Cageside Seats):

"But the pay-per-view itself. It's me vs. The Shield, 3-on-1. This is the most pushed three guys since like Bobby Lashley. They've pushed and protected all three guys. And they're like 'you're going over.' And I was like 'okay, if that's what you want.' And then they grabbed me and they stressed 'but you gotta make Roman look really, really strong.' And I was like 'no, I was just going to f*cking sh*t on 'em and beat 'em. I was just going to tear through them and f*cking Superman the sh*t out of them and GTS all three of them at the same time.'

"I was like 'yeah, I get it, okay.' So while we're putting the match together, every two minutes somebody new is coming up to me. 'Hey, you've gotta make him look really strong.' So I got so sick of Michael Hayes, and everybody else coming up to me, people who weren't even involved in the match 'hey, you're making him look really strong, right?' And I finally said 'you know what? You know what would make them look really strong? If they beat me.' Because three guys can't beat one guy. That's f*cking dumb. 'But no, Vince wants you to go over.' 'Okay.' 'But you gotta make 'em look...' 'G*ddamn it! I f*cking get it! I know how to do the job, shut the f*ck up. But if one more... I'm just going to f*cking put 'em over. That's it. I'm going to put them over, and then they're going to look really strong, and then you're going to be happy, right?' 'Well, no, because they want you to go over. But you have to make them look strong.' It's just a mentality."

What do you think of Punk's story? Let us know in the comments section.