WWE World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk will shortly findhimself back in the WrestleMania main event after being challenged by Royal Rumble winner Roman Reigns, but despite his recent success, he can still be humble on occasion for example, when discussing last year's main event onNight 1 of WrestleMania 41. During an appearance on Radio Row over Super Bowl weekend, Punk gently pushed back on "YouBetter YouBet" host Nick Kostos, who claimed Punk "definitely" wrestled in the best match that weekend."I'll pump the brakes there," Punk said. "I appreciate it, but I think the girls outdid us.I think IYO, Bianca and Rhea was ... for my money, hats off, women. Beautiful."IYO SKY,Bianca Belair, and Rhea Ripley wrestled a triple threat match that opened WrestleMania 41 Night 2, a match that saw SKY retain her Women's World Championship in a critically acclaimed contest. Punk's own triple threat match involved both Seth Rollins and Reigns, who Punk will now face for the first time in a singles match. When asked what this year's WrestleMania means to him, Punk kept the humility vibes going."This is literally everything I ever asked for," he said. "I'm the champ heading into WrestleMania, there's not a lot that I haven't accomplished in this business, and to still be operating at this high level as a 47-year-old man? I think I'm doing the best work of my career, so why would I complain? I'm just grateful for it all.I know my window's closing ... this is all gonna end someday, you know what I mean, but until then, man, I'm going until the wheels fall off. I'm super proud of myself. I'm not gonna give myself all these flowers while I'm still around, I think the proof is in the pudding. The proof is that I am strapped up, I'm the heavyweight champion, the fact that I'm on the cover of WWE 2K26, that's just the fruits of my labor, and it justifies all the hard work and sacrifice I put in to get here."
Maybe I'm biased as the person who wrote an entire essay on SKY vs. Ripley vs. Belair, but CM Punk is absolutely, 100% correct that his match was outshone by the women last year. I would give kudos to Punk for being clear-eyed enough to see it, but wrestling is his job and he should be able to see when it rises to the level of true greatness, so instead I'll just give him kudos for saying it out loud and pushing back on Nick Kostos' blatantly untrue claim. Even Dave Meltzer, who is infamous for not giving American women's matches the ratings they deserve, gave the women's triple threat five stars (he gave Punk vs.Reigns vs. Rollins four and three-quarters, for the record).I'm happy that Punk is proud of himself for where he is in his career heading into WrestleMania 42. He has every reason to be happy with his current position. But he could have just sat back and let Kostos say he had the best match at WrestleMania last year, and I'm glad he was honest enough to make the correction.
