CM Punk Talks Bautista’s MMA Debut, WWE ’13 News, AJ Lee

— To promote WWE ’13, THQ held a press event at Skylight West Studios in Manhattan to announce new details about the upcoming video game. On hand for the event were RAW General Manager AJ Lee, Mick Foley and Paul Heyman. The official WWE website has published this article on the event.

Cory Ledesma of THQ revealed that Heyman was greatly involved with the production of the game.

“We went to Paul Heyman to provide some creative direction on the storylines that are taking place in the Universe mode experience,” Ledesma told WWE.com. “We relied on Heyman heavily. It’s almost like he executive produced the Universe mode.” Heyman’s involvement as the writer of the Attitude Era campaign suited the creative force behind ECW well. “I have a certain kinship with fans of that era,” Heyman said, “So I got a chance to relive the Attitude Era and update it into the Universe mode for this game.”

— CM Punk appeared on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour. Here are the highlights…

On Bautista’s MMA Debut: “It’s definitely a bucket-list kind of thing. I think it’s awesome, too. Dave just wanted the experience. He wanted to fight even if it was just one time. It was something that he wanted to do. He loves it so he put his mind to it and did it, and I think that amazing. I don’t think anybody can criticize that. He has no delusions of grandeur. He’s not trying to get a big, fat UFC contract. He’s not trying to coast on his name from the WWE. He’s just fighting because he wanted to experience it.”

On Bautista’s Haters: “The haters, if you’re doing something right you’re going to get criticized. I don’t think there’s a whole lot of people who can do what Dave did, and those are the ones that are going to criticize him. To me, those are the funniest ones. They say funny stuff. They make the funniest comments and they’re fun to laugh at.”

On King Mo Doing Bellator and TNA: “It definitely is [a tall order],” Punk said. “Both jobs are full-time jobs. This is the evolution of our sport. MMA is so huge, and there’s a lot of fighters that are fans of pro wrestling and there’s also a whole lot of pro wrestlers who are huge MMA fans. This is just the next step. I think somebody was going to do it or try it eventually.”

— As noted earlier here on the website, Matthew Ignatieff, who was struck twice in the face by CM Punk during Monday’s live RAW television broadcast, addressed the ordeal in a brief video interview.

Ignatieff said he felt Punk’s tape go across his face. When asked if he was upset with Punk, he said “a little bit” since it doesn’t seem like something a person should do. He then said he now knows how NBA fans felt when Ron Artest went after them years ago during a game.

100% DIRECT LINK (PHOTOS): AJ’s High School Yearbook Picture! HAHA **NERD ALERT**!!!