CM Punk Recalls Vince McMahon Backstage Reaction To WWE Pipebomb Promo, Lying About What He Was Going To Say
Published: 11 minutes ago by Jamie Toolan | Last Updated: 6 minutes ago by Jamie Toolan
Jamie has been covering the world of wrestling for four years and currently holds the position of Assistant Editor of WrestleTalk.com. During his time working for WrestleTalk.com he has written and published over 4,000 news and feature articles covering events and happenings from WWE, AEW, TNA and a variety of international and independent wrestling promotions.
WWE
CM Punk has recalled Vince McMahon’s reaction to his famous pipe bomb promo in June 2011, and the lies he told the former WWE Chairman about its contents.
Kicking off the historic ‘Summer of Punk’, the June 27, 2011 episode of WWE Raw saw CM Punk drop one of the most quoted promos in company history, later dubbed the ‘pipe bomb.’
Voicing all his frustrations about WWE before his planned exit at the end of his contract, Punk’s words blurred the lines between fiction and reality, destroying the fourth wall with mentions of rival promotions such as New Japan Pro Wrestling and Ring of Honor, as well as talent who left the company under controversial circumstances: Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman.
During his appearance on What’s Your Story? with Steph McMahon, Punk recalled being told by Vince McMahon to “air his grievances” with the promo, an opportunity Punk seized, while also using caution by not letting Vince McMahon know exactly what he was going to say.
Punk explained:
“The context is that I am very much still leaving. I have no new contract. I am looking forward to, I think the next day we were flying to Australia and New Zealand, and it was gonna be my last tour.
“I was told this unbelievable thing, ‘I want you to go out there and air your grievances.’ ‘No you don’t, you don’t want me doing this.’ And to bring it back, instinct, I knew if I told your dad (Vince McMahon) this is what I want to say he would say ‘No, can’t say that.’ I trusted myself, because I think the thought was ‘he’s gonna swear, he’s gonna get us fined by the FCC, he’s gonna get us thrown off the air, he’s gonna whip his d**k out, I don’t know.’
“My intent was never to do anything like that. In the confines of the television show we do, I have too much respect for the business to go so far, that I’m just burning a bridge for no reason just to do it.
‘I want you to go out there and air your grievances.’ ‘Ok.’ Nothing I did or said was outside of what we did on our television show. But knowing, my instincts, saying ‘New Jaan Pro Wrestling.’ Wildly provocative for some reason. Because I think everybody knew the rules… A lot of it was just based on stuff that I knew would irritate Vince. If I said ‘Hey, I wanna go out there and talk about Paul (Heyman) and Brock (Lesnar) he’d be like ‘No, don’t mention them.’ Ok, so I didn’t.”
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Punk then recalled handing Vince McMahon a fake script of the promo, and Vince’s only request being that Punk also make fun of Stephanie McMahon:
“I wrote up this bulls**t and I gave it to him, and he read it, and his only feedback was ‘It’s good, good just make fun of Stephanie.’ And I was like ‘Excuse me?’ ‘Yeah, add her in there.’ I was like ‘Ok.’
Punk admitted that purposely saying things he wasn’t meant to did make him believe there was a possibility he could be fired for the promo, but Vince’s actual reaction when he walked back through the curtain was far different:
“The funny thing is, the Twitter smart fans will still argue about it, ’It was approved it, it was this,’ it was both. It was approved to a degree and my instincts told me, I’m not saying anything too bad, if he’s gonna be mad at me, he’s gonna be f**king mad at me, it’s fine. But it’s not like oh, I’m mad at you, and you’re straight up fired, although I did think there was a possibility of that.
“…The instincts took over and I really felt super strongly that this was the way it has to be, so I went out and did it that way. When I came back it was I smell money’, is what he said. At the time, that was the stamp of approval, that was it. That was everything right there.”
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While CM Punk’s original pipe bomb is now 15 years old, it was recreated by his Money in the Bank 2011 opponent John Cena on the June 20, 2025 episode of SmackDown during the pair’s feud over the Undisputed WWE Championship (see below).
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