Last August, CM Punk got into a backstage altercation with Jack Perry at All In. Punk was then fired from All Elite Wrestling, and Perry was suspended for several months.
CM Punk appeared on MMA Hour in April, where he discussed his time in AEW, WWE return, backstage brawl with The Elite, and the altercation with Jack Perry. Punk’s comments during the interview got under the skin of Tony Khan.
AEW then aired the Punk/Perry incident on the April 10th episode of Dynamite. Khan and the company received mixed reactions from the fans after airing the footage.
In an interview with Jimmy Traina of Sports Illustrated, CM Punk was asked whether AEW airing the footage irritated him. Punk said showing the footage didn’t hurt him or help AEW.
“It’s kind of like… I have to wrestle Drew McIntyre, right? It’s this garbage person that I don’t want in my life. This is the fight game. This is the sh-t talk business. It’s just like fighting in the UFC. You see these guys ripping at each other in ugly press conferences and getting personal. I don’t necessarily enjoy that energy, but the payoff is, I get to go in a ring and get to blacken eyes and chip teeth and make Drew [McIntyre] sob and do whatever else in my head that I hope to do to him. It felt really ugly, but then I was like, showing that footage isn’t going to help them or hurt me, so whatever. Being a top draw in two different companies is pretty wild. Thanks, guys.”
— 𝗟𝗲 𝗧𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗗𝘂 𝗖𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵 (@LeTempleDuCatch) April 11, 2024