"This is stupid" - CM Punk explains what scared him in WWE

CM Punk has been out of WWE since 2014, but he's still regularly asked about the company in interviews and other media appearances.

Punk recently appeared on The Movie Crypt, a podcast focusing on the entertainment industry. The Straight Edge Superstar discussed occasions when he was scared in WWE, and explained one particular incident that occurred during a match against Jeff Hardy.

“I remember wrestling Jeff Hardy in the Staples Center and he was jumping off a very tall ladder onto me. I just had to lay on the table for an extended period of time, which really makes you think about it. It’s one of those things where, I’m just looking and thinking, ‘he’s really high up there,’" Punk said. (H/T Fightful)

"You just stew in that moment and I was thinking, ‘I should just get up and walk away. Why am I laying here? This is stupid.’ He finally jumped on me and I was like, ‘Yeah, that hurt.’ You want to protect Jeff more than you want to protect yourself because he’s the one that’s jumping, but you realize that’s a 200-pound man hurdling at you from a great height and it’s not going to end well for either of you,” said CM Punk.

Jeff Hardy was the one who really got me into WWE, when @CMPunk beat him and “forced him to retire from WWE” my childhood self was devastated. His feud with @MATTHARDYBRAND was amazing too pic.twitter.com/9it2n8p94K

— Steve (@SteveFc10) May 3, 2021

The event in question was SummerSlam 2009, where CM Punk defeated Jeff Hardy in a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match for the World Heavyweight Championship.

Punk went on to defeat Hardy again on SmackDown, which, in turn, banished the former champion from WWE for almost eight years.

CM Punk recently responded to a top NJPW star's challenge

Large parts of the WWE Universe regularly question whether CM Punk will ever return to the company. However, could The Best in the World show up in another promotion instead?

In an interview with Digital Spy last month, IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Will Ospreay challenged CM Punk to a match after winning the title. Punk's response failed to rule out the possibility of the match happening.

"I don't want to give people false hope in answering Ospreay. But he's for sure somebody that I've never wrestled before that interests me a lot more than, I guess, the corporate side of professional wrestling nowadays. New and different things are going to interest me more than doing the same old, same old. I always need new goals. I don't know. Let's see if he has it at the end of the summer and then ask me the question again." (H/T NoDQ.com)

Congratulations to the NEW IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Will Ospreay who defeated Kota Ibushi at Sakura Genesis to win the title! #TheFactionShow #WillOspreay #KotaIbushi #NJPW #Wrestling #prowrestling #japan pic.twitter.com/MhhMfT2Khs

— The Faction Show (@TheFactionShow) April 5, 2021

Do you want to see CM Punk back in WWE? Or would matches with the likes of Ospreay in other promotions interest you more? Did you enjoy Punk's SummerSlam clash with Jeff Hardy? Sound off in the comments section below.