Vince McMahon Comments on CM Punk's WWE Departure on Stone Cold's Podcast

On Monday night's live podcast with Stone Cold Steve Austin, WWE chairman Vince McMahon discussed CM Punk's acrimonious exit from WWE and subsequent podcast about the situation with Colt Cabana.

Punk made news when he was a guest on Cabana's show, The Art of Wrestling. The former world champion discussed the driving forces behind why he left the company, with McMahon and Triple H coming off particularly bad. Punk insisted that he's never going back to WWE, with the final straw being the fact that he received his termination notice on his wedding day.

Some fans wondered whether Austin would approach the topic with McMahon during Monday's podcast on the WWE Network. McMahon answered a few questions without getting too heated.

Regarding the wedding day firing, McMahon said that wasn't the plan by WWE, but that's how things unfortunately played out, per WrestlingInc.com:

McMahon rued the lack of an intermediary between the company and Punk, since Punk's more combative nature only frayed the relationship between the two, via Jeremy Thomas of 411Mania.com:

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McMahon said that Punk lacks communication skills and is a "loner" and that he hopes that he and Punk will be on the same page again sometime in the future and work together again. Vince said he did not listen to the whole CM Punk podcast but heard about some of what was said. McMahon said he only wants what is best for business and would be open to working with Punk again.

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He added that he'd like to work with Punk again at some point down the road, bringing up Austin and Hulk Hogan, who left WWE under somewhat bad circumstances, only to make triumphant returns, per WrestleZone.com's Bill Pritchard:

McMahon wasn't completely contrite about everything, noting that many fans were also left disappointed with Punk's abrupt departure, per Ringside Xcess:

Grantland's David Shoemaker wondered half-jokingly if McMahon would go full Bret Hart on Punk. He famously said "Bret screwed Bret" in regard to the "Montreal Screwjob":

It would be foolish to see McMahon's comments and immediately begin thinking that CM Punk's return is imminent. McMahon's rebuilding that bridge, but Punk remained defiant when talking to Cabana that he's the happiest he's ever been and doesn't love wrestling anymore.

Perhaps hearing what McMahon had to say will help to change Punk's attitude, but that process isn't going to happen overnight.

Punk could return to a WWE ring someday, but don't expect it to happen anytime soon.