During the conference call held earlier today to discuss the quarter earnings results, Vince McMahon made the first public comment about CM Punk since Punk walked out of the company several weeks ago.

When McMahon was asked about the upcoming WrestleMania and a status update on CM Punk by one of the callers who managed to get through. McMahon said that this year’s WrestleMania will be big both storyline-wise and talent-wise and as far as CM Punk goes, the Chairman and CEO said, “He’s taking a sabbatical, let’s just put it that way.”

WWE has avoided talking about CM Punk since he quit almost a month ago and Punk himself has not used his Twitter account since January 27, where he thanked his fans for all the support. WWE has denied releasing him last week and Punk remains on the WWE.COM website and his merchandise is still selling on WWEShop.com.