World Wrestling Entertainment chairman Vince McMahon looks out at the crowd during a segment of NBC's "Today" show in New York in this April 2, 2007 file photo. McMahon said on October 30, 2008 it is too soon to know how the slumping econom
World Wrestling Entertainment chairman Vince McMahon looks out at the crowd during a segment of NBC's "Today" show in New York in this April 2, 2007 file photo. McMahon said on October 30, 2008 it is too soon to know how the slumping economy will impact the media company, but he expects to continue paying the regular dividend on WWE shares in 2009. REUTERS

World Wrestling Entertainment Chairman Vince McMahon broke a lot of ground during his appearance in the Stone Cold Steve Austin podcast, "The Steve Austin Show," Monday. It was his first time to come face to face with Austin as well as his first opportunity to address publicly the claims of former talent CM Punk.

McMahon was apologetic with the way things has turned out for both parties as he admits that it was unfortunate that the dismissal papers came on the day the Punk was to wed WWE Diva Aj Lee. He also added that the he still looks forward to a day that the organization and the former heavyweight champion will be able to reconcile and work together.

"I would like to apologize. Sometimes in a big corporation, the legal people don't know what talent relations are doing, and conversely. Punk got his severance papers on the day he got married and that was coincidence, so I want to personally apologize for that," McMahon said in the podcast.

Punk went on Colt Cabana's The Art of Wrestling podcast a few days ago to reveal that he was let go of the company during the day of his wedding and added several wrinkles in how the WWE handles its affairs. He said that he was one time misdiagnosed with a lump in his back and had to seek outside treatment to rid himself of the infection. He also went at lengths on his strained relationship with company man Triple H and said that the former colleague resented him, which led to an underdeveloped storyline for his character.

McMahon regretted that Punk had to air dirty laundry to the public and he maintains that it is not in his nature to go into detail on the allegations made by Punk. The WWE chairman gave politically correct answers to Austin and discussed other range of topics including the expansion of the WWE Network, which he hopes to launch in England by January 2015, as well as the difference in the mindset of Austin's generation of wrestlers to the current crop of superstars.

The former wrestler and heel singled out current talents Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns, Bray Wyatt and Seth Rollins who are just going with the ebb and flow and are not standing out as much as the previous stars because of their fear to fail. Austin chimes in and challenges the wrestlers to step up the game, given that the opportunity is there and there is no other threat to the WWE except for TNA which is still trying to find its ways.

Watch the video of the interview below:

(Youtube/WWE)