When CM Punk finally returned to wrestling in the summer of 2021 it seemed that the future was bright for his run with All Elite Wrestling. However, it became clear during the All Our post-show media scrum in August of 2022 that things weren’t working out as Punk openly shared his negative opinions on AEW.
In August of 2023, CM Punk was involved in a backstage altercation with Jack Perry at the All In pay-per-view and following the event Tony Khan announced that Punk’s contract had been terminated. Recently CM Punk appeared on the MMA Hour and he finally shared some details regarding how things played out from his perspective.
“This is one of those things like, there’s all these rumours about NDAs. There’s a big difference between not being allowed to talk about s**t, and not wanting to talk about s**t. I don’t particularly want to litigate this again.
“Tony’s big idea was separate show, we’re going to separate everybody. I said that would never work, just let me go, who cares, it’s best. These guys don’t want me here, this isn’t a real business, this isn’t a business predicated on making money, drawing money, selling tickets. It’s not what it was sold to me as, let me go.
“The second day we had this show, I’m sitting in catering and Tony Schiavone comes to get me, he says ‘Jack is cussing me out, he cussed out Mike Mansury and he’s cussing out the doctor right now’.
“I was told people were being separated so there’s not problems, so you don’t want me in this. You all need to handle this, because if you don’t, I’m going to handle this, and you’re not going to like how I am gonna handle this.
“I don’t know anything about Jack being on vacation, but there are people that work one day a week and don’t want to, they want to show up, wrestle and film vignettes and sit at home for weeks, do what you want, it’s not my company, but not on my show.
“What Jack wanted to do was he wanted to smash the window of a rental car with a pipe, I was like ‘doc’s told you no, Darryl’s told you no, Mike’s told you no, Schiavone’s told you no, and apparently you’ve cussed them out, so I’m telling you no, we don’t do that here, if you wanna do that, go to Wednesday and do it.
“To come to this show and everyone’s supposed to be separated to get rid of all the drama, and you’re swearing at the doctor because it’s real glass, it’s gonna get in your eye, there’s a safe way to do that, and I politely said that to him, I said this is a different show, if you want to do that, go to Wednesday.
“He clearly took something very business minded very personally, which is fine, because I’ve done that before too, and it’s very much who he’s friends with and s**t never got squashed, nobody’s in charge, and it turned into what it turned into.”
CM Punk then went on to share some details regarding what happened during the infamous backstage altercation with Jack Perry that took place before his match at AEW All In last summer.
“Jack came back from his match, I was the next match, and I’ve got people with me. I’m not going to say who they are, because I’ve got a lot of friends that work there and I don’t want them to be punished for being friends with me.
“I walk up and I’m like, why do you insist on doing this dumb internet s**t on TV, and he was like ‘well if you’ve got a problem do something about it’ and I’m like come on man, I’d f*****g kill you, what are we doing.
“I thought I was doing the responsible thing, I didn’t punch anybody, I just choked somebody a little bit. Samoa Joe was there, told me to stop, then I quit.
“I turned to Tony, I said this place is a f*****g joke man, you’re a clown, I quit. I went to my room, Joe and Jerry Lynn got me and lets just go out there and kill it. I was just too fired up and I’m fired up now, I’m probably going to regret talking about it.”
Fans who are hoping to see CM Punk on a grand stage sooner than later will be able to see Punk at WrestleMania on Sunday as he’s currently scheduled to do commentary for the Seth Rollins vs. Drew McIntyre match.
H/T WrestleTalk.com
