CM Punk: Vince McMahon’s removal one of the factors that illuminated my WWE return

With CM Punk set to return to in-ring action at next month’s SummerSlam for the first time since January, the star told Denise Salcedo on Thursday that he is mentally strong and physically as 100% as he can get at this stage of his career. Salcedo caught up with Punk at San Diego Comic Con where she talked to him about a variety of topics including how Vince McMahon no longer being associated with WWE was one of the factors that helped “illuminate” his way back. Punk said returning was “never a thing I was yearning to do. There were a lot of things that had to happen for that pathway to kind of clear. The stars had to align, there had to be a full moon. A lot of dominos fell in order for us to get here.” He later said, “Vince being out of picture…I think probably illuminated the way. I think that might have been one of the biggest things. And that was both ways. It wasn’t me, it wasn’t him, it was…there’s a lot of history there. All of a sudden, one of us got removed from the equation and it changed a lot of