WWE Star CM Punk Gets Candid About Vince McMahon, Allegations Against Him

In January, WWE was rocked by a lawsuit filed against the company, head of talent relations John Laurinaitis, and former CEO and Chairman Vince McMahon, alleging sex trafficking, exploitation, and assault. The initial filing detailed harrowing accounts from former employee Janel Grant regarding her time working for a company she claims nurtured a workplace environment that allowed her and potentially others to be systematically exploited by Vince McMahon and his associates, as well as graphic text messages allegedly sent by McMahon to Grant over her tenure. 

Famously outspoken against Vince McMahon and WWE prior to his surprise return to the company last year, CM Punk addressed his relationship with McMahon and his thoughts towards the allegations during an interview with Ariel Helwani for "MMA Hour." After claiming he had only seen McMahon once after making his return to the company, Punk addressed Grant's allegations directly.

"There's no positivity there," Punk said. "I didn't read all the allegations, I read the text messages and I went, 'Oh, f*** this.' It's indefensible ... The first thing out of my mouth was, I'm kind of shocked at how dumb he was, writing stuff down and leaving a paper trail. It's horrific. I think at this point all of the energy should be used to somehow — I don't even know if you can make reparations or amends, but there's victims here. So what CM Punk thinks about Vince and the CM Punk-Vince relationship doesn't f***ing mean anything. I'm more concerned about, going forward, how do those people survive after suffering all that trauma?"

When asked whether he feels the business is better off without McMahon, Punk explained that there was no other answer than "yes." Punk's time with WWE prior to his 2014 departure was spent working under both Vince McMahon and John Laurinaitis, and he famously went against the pair on TV, blurring the lines between reality and storyline with scathing promos leveled against them. Punk said that whil he wasn't aware of any malpractice while he was with the company, he wasn't entirely surprised, comparing the situation to Chris Benoit's murder-suicide in 2007.

"I was friends with Chris Benoit, and I don't know if it's just how I process things, but I'm famously on camera weeping saying goodbye to Chris, because at the time we didn't know that he had murdered his wife and son," Punk said. "So like, coming to terms with, that's my friend, he did this horrible thing, obviously f*** him, f*** that. But then, I don't have memories of Chris Benoit traveling with me and murdering people at the gym. So there was never any instances where I would be in a room with Vince and he's s***ing on somebody or sexually assaulting somebody ... But there's that part of me that goes — just like Benoit — okay, I can see that."

Punk echoed the sentiment that Becky Lynch shared during her own address of the allegations, understanding that McMahon had developed a father relationship with a number of staff over the years. But he admitted that he's glad to see truth emerge.

"He ruined his life. He ruined his life ruining other people's lives," Punk concluded. "So there's very much a part of me that's like, 'Good, we got him.'"