A lot has transpired for CM Punk in the past year, as the pro wrestler has skyrocketed to the top of the WWE. As he goes into a big match against both John Cena and The Big Show this Sunday at SummerSlam, I had the chance to briefly speak with Punk at the recent WWE Be a STAR / SummerSlam party about what to expect at the Pay-Per-View and his recent shift into a more ambiguous persona, straddling the line between heel and face.

You know what, it’s cool. And doing an event like this kind of settles it in for me. Because I walked this same red carpet, the same Be A STAR promotion, same pay-per-view, SummerSlam, last year. And I was WWE Champion, and I’m WWE Champion still. So it’s exciting for me. It’s been one hell of a ride.Well, you know, the funny thing about me is that no matter how many times I show people, there’s still going to be the detractors. The world isn’t black and white. The world is shades of gray. A lot of people see John Cena as being some big boy scout, but the guy wouldn’t shake my hand. So am I going to beat him again on Sunday? Absolutely. Is that going to change anybody’s perception of him or me? I don’t necessarily think so, but it will be interesting come Monday to see what happens.

AJ Lee Talks SummerSlam, Becoming RAW’s GM and Scooby-Doo

As a fan of what we do, I think it’s way more interesting than going out there and being, like, cheesy, smiley guy - like, “Oh, I’m smiling, so you have to cheer me.” Or tongue-out, mean-face guy that makes people want to boo. I like where I’m at right now because where I’m at is me, 100 percent. I like some decisions AJ makes, and sometimes I don’t like a decision AJ makes. And I’m going to be vocal about it. And if somebody doesn’t like that I yell and scream at AJ and they want to boo me, well, you know what? More power to them. If some people like the fact that I tell off Miz on live TV and they want to cheer me, then more power to them. But I’m not out there pandering anymore. I don’t want to try to influence anybody in one way or another. I want people to come to our shows, boo and cheer for who you want -- and in regards to me, if you don’t like me, awesome. If you do like me, hey, even better. Have a good time.It came from -- everybody’s standing in the ring and delivering interviews and they all look the same to me. When I get down to business, I like to be comfortable. Sitting down, to me, is being comfortable. And getting a load off, I think it just helps me focus more.I don’t know. We got a t-shirt, and you can actually get the t-shirt if you pre-order WWE ’13 at GameStop. Are there ever going to be ice cream bars? Maybe. Do a lot of people in the WWE Universe need to be eating ice cream? Probably not, myself included. I’m a fatty! So you’ll just have to cross your fingers, and wait and see.

Check out our other pre-SummerSlam interviews with RAW General Manager AJ Lee and Smackdown General Manager Booker T Eric Goldman is Executive Editor of IGN TV. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN