For a man who once ripped through WWE with a live mic and a grudge, CM Punk sounds remarkably chill about timekeeping these days.Pulling back the curtain is all the rage in WWE’s Netflix era — and they’ve got a master at it.A revitalised CM Punk returned to WWE in late 2023WWEWWE UnReal, a behind-the-scenes writing-room documentary, drops later this month.Ahead of the release, Punk shared some interesting details on one of the most carefully guarded parts of the job — not the finish, not the creative, but the clock.And rather than fight for extra minutes, he’s apparently more than happy to hand them off.“I don’t want to cut into anyone else’s segment,” he told SportBible. “I will just go out there and go short.“I would rather go short than long. If Rhea [Ripley] is in the next segment, I can nudge her and be like, ‘Hey, you guys need two minutes? I can give you two minutes’.”Not exactly the same guy who once held Raw hostage in a Stone Cold T-shirt. But then again, that was a decade ago, and this version of Punk seems far more focused on the rhythm of the show than forcing his own or, as social media would summarise: CM Punk behaves himself these days.“I think that’s the way a lot of the talent work together,” he continued.“I know there is a lot of Bloodline segments or stuff with The Rock – when it’s really good and the crowd’s going absolutely bananas for it – you can’t really rush through it.”That’s the trade-off, as Punk put it: “It’s one of the secret rules.“As long as it’s really, really good, you can get away with it. Going 20 minutes over and you suck – that’s no good.”It also explains why Punk and his fellow veterans, so adept at managing a crowd, keep a close eye on what’s working with the live crowd, especially when the chants start rolling in abroad.“The overseas crowds, they love to sing and they love their soccer chants,” he said.Punk has been known to champion his fellow stars including Rhea RipleyWWEDwayne Johnson is one of few stars Punk knows can stretch his in-ring time in WWEWWE“You want the fans to react and don’t want to step on that because that makes the moment special.”Furthermore, he went on to detail that, in the cut and thrust of a match, when panic can set in backstage and the wrestling ring, he’s the one keeping things steady:“If you have a producer that’s panicking and they’re hitting the button and screaming at the referee, the referee then in turn panics and starts screaming at the talent.“I’ve been in there with referees that are panicking at me where I calmly turn them and I go, ‘Shut the f*** up! Calm down.’”Classic Punk — zen one second, blunt-force trauma the next. But even that’s less about ego now and more about getting through the match without a headset meltdown making things worse.CM Punk knows the backstage score in WWE – The Rock undoubtedly does tooWWECM Punk, the man who once demanded more time, now offering it away when the moment calls for it. The man who was so keen to raise hell and burn down the establishment is now the one maintaining calm and order – no wonder he calls himself the best in the world.