Drew McIntyre actually thanks CM Punk for bringing out the best of him

If there’s one thing fans of professional wrestling know very, very, very well, it’s that Drew McIntyre and CM Punk do not like each other one bit.

Neither man likes how the other handles their business, neither likes how the other uses social media, and each man has even gone out of their way to injure the other in order to prevent their foe from becoming the WWE World Heavyweight Champion, with McIntyre tearing Punk’s triceps at the Royal Rumble and the “Best in the World” returning the favor at WrestleMania 40.

And yet, in a recent interview with The Daily Mail, McIntyre actually wanted to thank the “Second City Saint,” as they’ve helped to bring out the best from one another over the past few months.

“I have to thank him [Punk] for that I guess. One thing I can thank him for. If he’s got that microphone, you know he’s bringing his A-game, and perhaps the first time we were in the ring together, he was still finding his feet being back in WWE. I think he realized – I know he realized, I could see it in his eyes – this isn’t the same Drew, and I had his number the first time we were in the ring together, and I stomped his stupid little arm,” Drew McIntyre told The Daily Mail.

“The second time, I could see it in his eyes, ‘Right, I’m back, I’ve got all my guns loaded,’ and this is the CM Punk of old. And I knew I could either step up to his level or I can drown and I don’t belong at his level. So it was cool to have that opportunity to go back and forth and have people go, ‘Oh my god, this is insane.’ When you thought it couldn’t get anymore insane, it kept escalating and escalating. You have to be quick on your feet, and you have to know exactly who you are in this industry if you’re going to compete at the top level. So I can say thank you to him for showing in that segment everybody that said, well, Drew just went to-to-toe with Punk in his prime, on fire. And Seth also added to that segment in what has become something of a legendary segment. It’s all people talk to me about recently.”

Whoa, McIntyre saying somehting nice about Punk? What’s next, Punk complementing the “Scottish Warrior” right back? Gosh, then what happens? A truce? A tag team championship reign? There is literally a world of possibilities if Paul “Triple H” Levesque decides to take things in that direction, even if there has to be months and months of in-ring action to pay off all of this on-mic exposition.