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CM Punk has a wealth of experience in the Royal Rumble, but none of that has translated to him winning the namesake match. He shared the crushing reason why he doesn't want to be entry #1 ever again.
When speaking to Jackie Redmond in a sit-down interview on WWE's YouTube channel, CM Punk was asked a variety of questions ahead of the 2025 Royal Rumble. The Rumble is an event that has historically been heartbreaking for him as he not only exited WWE after the 2014 Rumble, but he tore his tricep ten years later in his televised in-ring return for WWE.
CM Punk said that he doesn't want to be entry #1 as it's an unfavorable spot in the Royal Rumble. He referred to it as not being the smartest strategy - explaining how crushing it was when he entered at #1 and made it to the final four, only to be eliminated:
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"I think I always used to overtrain for the Royal Rumble because obviously, you're thinking 'Oh, I'm going to be in this match for a long time'. A lot of it is the luck of the draw. Getting a late number...whoever is the fittest guy here in WWE wants to show off - 'I want to pull number one and show everybody'. It's not the smartest strategy. I've been number one, made it to the final four as number one, and been pulled out at the last second. It's crushing."
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He continued:
"It's running 26.1 miles of a marathon and in the last 0.1, somebody else crosses the line. I'm just trying to be fluid, I think the key is to go as hard in recovery as I do in training and just having the wealth of experience of multiple Royal Rumbles and a very long career thus far to hopefully carry me throughout the night. Up until that point, believing in myself." [23:28 - 24:36]
You can watch the full video below:
Jeff Hardy wants to revisit his feud against CM Punk with a twist
When Jeff Hardy and CM Punk got into a feud in the late 2000s, the troubled Hardy was one of wrestling's biggest babyfaces while Punk was the biggest heel. His antagonization of Jeff Hardy's past led to a massive rivalry that people talk about over a decade-and-a-half later.
Jeff Hardy, when speaking to Chris Van Vliet, stated that he expected to have some sort of an on-screen interaction with CM Punk in AEW, even if it was just a backstage moment. He added that he wants to see the feud revisited with a big change in the dynamic:
"But we never got to do that. But ultimately, I would love to revisit that feud in some way, and who knows. CM Punk is such a superpower in the pro wrestling game, but if Jeff Hardy getting sober made him like an a**hole. I mean, come on, heel Jeff Hardy against the one and only popular CM Punk. I feel like that’s completely possible," Hardy explained. (H/T CVV)
It certainly would be interesting to see Jeff Hardy being the heel in the dynamic, although it seems like a stretch in 2025. Hardy's popularity has declined, although there's no doubt that an interaction between them would get a big pop.
That certainly is possible now that the WWE-TNA deal is official.
If you take any quotes from the first half of this article, please provide H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling and credit WWE.
