Paul Heyman recently appeared on Chris Jericho's Talk is Jericho podcast on Podcastone.com alongside WWE Hall of Famer Edge for the 50th episode of the show and he discussed his former protégé CM Punk leaving the WWE back in January.
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Punk bolted after the Royal Rumble prior to an episode of Monday Night RAW due to being burned out and tired of his character's use in the company. Heyman, who managed Punk during his WWE run, spoke about his reaction to Punk leaving.
"On the day that it happened it was very spontaneous," Heyman said. "It was a year in the building [up to it]. Any day in that year had he decided to walk [it] would not have surprised me. He was unhappy. He had enough. He couldn't take it anymore and it wasn't a slow build...a year before he walked there were daily conversations of, 'I don't know how much longer I'll be able to take this, I don't know how much longer I'm gonna be here,'...so I'm surprised it lasted that long."
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Jericho asked Heyman if he was surprised that after a year of complaining it took Punk so long to leave the company.
"I was surprised based on how volatile and how intense his desire was to walk a year prior," Heyman said. "It's not like it subsided I mean, every day with him was an exercise in him finding the balance to simply continue on and find the passion that he needed to do it. I think what happened was he walked in the day after the Royal Rumble and he couldn't find that passion."
Heyman also played off of his personal experiences of leaving the company in 2006 and not coming back for over five years.
"I was always of the opinion that once he pulled that trigger it would be a very long time before he would ever be ready to come back...When I pulled the trigger back in December 2006 I was thoroughly convinced that I was done," he said.
Edge, who was forced to retire due to a neck injury after WrestleMania XXVII in 2011, said he understood why Punk would need a break from the grind of professional wrestling.
"It's a job that's so all-consuming," Edge said. "To every aspect: emotional, physical, just everything. To decompress from that it can't happen in two weeks. If you ever really truly wanna try and recharge his batteries I mean [his absence] might be for good, it might be five and a half years, who knows how long it is."
Jericho, who took a leave of absence for similar reasons and has been a part-time performer ever since deciding to return, also understood how Punk felt when he left.
"I left in '05 for two and a half years and I wasn't up to snuff in my head," Jericho said. "Ideas that usually pop in my head easily were not coming...Before I left actually Vince had a meeting with me where I knew they were gonna try to cut my contract and I said, 'before you guys even get into it I'm gone. I'm leaving.'"
As far as a return, Heyman said Punk will feel what "Stone Cold" Steve Austin described as "withdrawal" from the wrestling business.
"It's funny because I think Punk is experiencing withdrawal," Heyman said. "For a straightedge guy who has never had any sort of withdrawal...this was his addiction. And I actually think in watching just how intense his dislike for it all was becoming, I actually think he was going through the withdrawal while he was still there."
Punk has been away from the squared circle since January and married WWE Diva A.J. Lee, who is the subject of pregnancy rumors, but time will tell if Punk will ever return to the WWE again.
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