Appearing on ESPN New York radio ahead of tonight’s Saturday Night’s Main Event at Madison Square Garden, WWE champion CM Punk talked about his time off from WWE right after WrestleMania 42.

He said it was remarkable that he managed to get the time away while he wasn’t injured or due to surgery and noted it was the first time in his career that he had such time off.

“I’m not going to say a rough year, you know…because suffering is relative, I was World Heavyweight champion on RAW for quite some time, and during that entire time I was champion, I had at least three or four people who were very close to me pass away,” Punk revealed.

He said that each time someone passed, he still went to work the following day because it helped him but he chose not to talk about it publicly.

“Being here amongst my road family and being able to connect with the fans on that level helped me get through it, but there was still some stuff I needed to process,” Punk continued. “So, my time away was just to kind of reset.”

Punk added that now that he’s champion, he’s back as full time as full time can get.

“If you’re upset that I was mourning some dead friends, I think that’s a you problem. We should celebrate people taking some time for themselves,” he concluded.