One of the biggest reasons behind the departure of CM Punk in 2014 was WWE treating The Rock as a male eventer and giving him the WrestleMania main event again and again despite he was a part timer. They even took the WWE Championship away from Punk so that he could defend it in the main event of WrestleMania 29.
Punk openly talked about it after leaving WWE in January 2014 and he also explained how another part timer was taking the main event away from him of WrestleMania 30 and that was Batista. But things have changed since then quite a lot. Nowadays, part timers are getting more success than even the regular stars. One of the biggest of WWE right now is Logan Paul who always gets main event treatment.
CM Punk Discusses The Present Use of Part Timers in WWE and How The Views Changed Regarding It
The present face of WWE that is Roman Reigns, is also a part timer. Brock Lesnar also received a lot of success as a part timer. Even John Cena is featured on the main events who is also nothing but a part time or at this moment. CM Punk recently talked about the involvement of the part timers in WWE right now and how things has changed in the promotion for them. Speaking with Mail Sport recently, The Best in The World explained;
CM Punk dropped the WWE Championship to The Rock at Royal Rumble 2013 after 434 days title reign
“I think one of the difficult parts of this being so big and there’s so many moving parts, and you’re seeing it with [John] Cena now. Definitely, I have a different perspective now than I did ten years ago when I was working with The Rock. It was easy for everybody to say, ‘You’re not here. We’re grinding, we’re doing this.’
The schedule now is so much [more] limited than it was ten years ago. I can’t point a finger at somebody else now and say, ‘Well, you’re not here.’ Plus, a guy like John Cena, to me, he’s a busy dude. He’s earned that right.”
CM Punk left WWE in January 2014 and did not return to the promotion until Survivor Series 2023
“There’s no denying what a giant box office star The Rock is,” Punk continued. “I think peeling back a little bit and him being ‘Final Boss’ instead of being happy-go-lucky Rock, I think that is a character that can say, ‘Yeah, I’m not here all the time.
"Yeah, so what? I’ll show up for eight minutes every six months, and it’ll still be the biggest.’ I think there’s freedom and there’s an air to play with that a little bit, and it makes it better and more real and more exciting for everybody. But yeah, piss off for not being here every week, guys. Come on [laughs].”
Check out CM Punk potentially starting a feud with Roman Reigns here
There is a large number of fans who are not convinced part time was getting more opportunities than the full timers. They believe that this culture will destroy professional wrestling soon since it will stop the process of producing more stars in the future. Moreover, it looks like Punk's perspective has also changed towards the part timers.
H/T - Vice
