As seemingly the entire professional wrestling world watches on in a mix of awe, horror, and devilish fascination as CM Punk took the chair on the MMA Hour and, for the first time since his exit from AEW last summer, he unloaded the proverbial clip in an uncensored interview with Ariel Helwani, answering (almost) every question the veteran journalist asked that he was legally allowed to talk about.
One of the biggest draws of his ire? Well, that would be Tony Khan and Jack Perry, two of the men who made his life very difficult before things came to a head at Wembley Stadium in London, England.
Asked to talk for the first time publically about Punk's interaction with Perry from early Colllision to All In, the “Second City Saint” noted that, after dealing with the former “Jungle Boy's” antics on a Saturday night show, he had a strong feeling that segregating Young Bucks guys from his people was never going to work long-term.
“No, I guess I haven’t, but that’s the thing. Tony [Khan]’s big idea was a separate show. We’re going to separate everybody. I said, ‘That’ll never work. Just Let me go. Just get me out of here. Just pay me my money. I’ve already been off TV. I heard this arm. Just get me out of here.’ ‘No, I can’t let you go.’ ‘Why? 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, doing business. It’s not what it was sold to me as. Let me go.’ ‘No, I can’t, I’m going to do this new show. You’re going to have blah, blah, blah,” CM Punk said on MMA Hours via NoDQ.
“Then the second day we have this show, I’m sitting in catering, minding my own business, and Tony Schiavone comes and gets me, and he’s like, ‘Hey, I really need your help.’ I was like, ‘What?’ He’s like, ‘Jack is cussing me out. Mike Mansury, Daryl from production and cussing out the Doctor.’ I’ve explained before, ‘You all need to handle this because if you don’t, I’m going to handle it, and you’re not going to like the way I handle it.’ Prophetic words. So he’s begging me, now please. He drives me out of catering. I go up, Hook and Jack are doing an angle… I walked up to Jack and he was sitting in a car. What he wanted to do, it was a rental car. What he wanted to do was smash the window with a rental car with a pipe.
“But to come to this new show when everyone’s supposed to be separated, to get rid of all the drama, and then swearing at the doctor because the doctor’s like, ‘It’s real glass. S**t’s going to go in your eye.’ And I get it. I used to be that kid that was young and I want to do this, but there’s a safe way to do it. And I politely explained that to him. I didn’t raise my voice. I didn’t cuss at him. I very much just said, ‘We don’t do that here. This is Saturday. It’s a different show. If you want to do stuff like this, do it on Wednesday.’ That was it. I didn’t think there was going to be a problem. He obviously took something very business-minded, very personally. And that’s fine, because I’ve done that before, too. But it’s very much who he’s friends with. S**t never got squashed. Nobody’s in charge, and it turned into what it turned into.”
What happened, as many fans know, is that, after the Young Bucks opted against meeting with Punker to squash the beef, the “Best in the World” came to blows with Perry at the biggest show in the promotion's history in an incident that would cause him to be fired with cause from the company a few days later. Fortunately, he commented on that incident for the first time publically, too, and needless to say, it was incredibly interesting too.
CM Punk talks about the incident with Jack Perry at AEW All In 2023.
(MMA Hour) pic.twitter.com/LsQGvMtLPl
— Wrestle Ops (@WrestleOps) April 1, 2024
CM Punk handled what Tony Khan didn't at All In with Jack Perry.
Continuing his conversation regarding his final act in AEW, Punk turned his attention to the grand finale, his backstage fight with Jack Perry in the presence of his then-boss Tony Khan at All In. After watching Perry make his “It's real glass, cry me a river” shot, Punk went to TK in order to ask him to take care of the “Jungle Boy,” and when that didn't happen, well, he took matters into his own hands… literally.
“I went to Tony [Khan]. I was like, ‘Please handle that. Like, Please.’ He was like, ‘What do you want me to do?’ I was like, ‘I’m not I’m telling you what to do. Just be the boss, please. I’m tired of this s**t. I told you it was a mistake. I told you separate shows wasn’t going to work, and now we’re all here. Please handle it, because if you don’t, You’re not going to like the way I handle it.'” CM Punk told Tony Khan.
“Jack came back from his match. I was the next match. I’m sitting there. I got people with me. I’m not going to say who they are because I got a lot of friends who work there, and I wish them all well, and I don’t want them to be punished because they’re friends with me. And I walk up to them, and I’m just like, ‘Jack, why do you insist on doing this dumb internet s**t on TV?’ And he’s just like, ‘Well, if you got a problem about it, do something about it.’ And I was just like, ‘Man, come on, man. I’ll f**king kill you. What are we doing?’ I thought I was doing a responsible thing. I didn’t punch anybody. I just choked somebody a little bit. Samoa Joe was there, told me to stop, and then I quit. I turned to Tony, and I said, ‘This place is a f**king joke, man. You’re a clown. I quit.’ I went to my room, and then Joe and Jerry Lynn came and got me, and they’re ‘Let’s just go out there and kill it.’ I was just too fired up, and I’m fired up now, and I’m probably going to regret talking about all this s**t, but that’s what happened.”
Asked about Khan's comments about being afraid for his life during the altercation with Perry, Punk noted that, in his opinion, that response was unwarranted, as he firmly believes he didn't do anything to justify such a serious declaration.
“I can’t tell you what Tony felt or what he was thinking, but I never did anything that would make him fear for his life,” Punk declared. “But he’s who he is.”
Wow, well, based on how fans have already been reacting to Punk's comments online, it's safe to say the “Second City Saint” has almost completely cannibalized the wrestling news cycle on a day when The Rock and Roman Reigns are going to confront Cody Rhodes one final time on RAW before WrestleMania 40. You know, when it comes to stirring up drama, Phil Brooks really is the “Best in the World.”
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