Jack Perry recently spoke on Up Close with Renee Paquette about his personal and professional evolution over the last two years. Perry addressed the period following his backstage altercation with CM Punk at All In 2023, describing how the fallout from that incident forced him to change his mindset regarding his wrestling career.
Finding Growth Through Adversity
Perry admitted that the time following the Wembley Stadium incident was difficult, but ultimately necessary for his development. He noted that the experience liberated him from the pressure of trying to please everyone.
“I feel like I’ve grown a lot from it, but I feel like the growth came from a lot of it sounds dramatic to say pain, but it wasn’t the nicest of times, for most of that time,” Perry said. “It really freed me in a lot of ways. It’s kind of like before all that feels like another lifetime at this point, and I think back to how I felt before that, and a big thing I had was like, it sounds silly, I just wanted everyone to like me.”
The Pressure To Be Perfect
Before his suspension and character change, Perry felt an intense burden to succeed as a performer. He explained that wanting to micromanage his career and maintain a perfect image made the public criticism even harder to handle.
“I was new to being on TV. This was my dream job since I was a little kid, and I wanted to do it perfectly, and I wanted everyone to like me, and it’s not something I worry about so much in my real life, but this was different,” Perry said. “I wanted to micromanage it and make it perfect. So then when I would come up short of that, it was very disappointing, and coming up short of anything sucks, but doing it in such a public way, and then there are a million people telling you you’re a piece of s**t or whatever, it’s hard.”
A New Perspective
The former FTW Champion claimed that he eventually reached a breaking point where he stopped caring about external validation. This realization allowed him to focus on what he wanted to achieve in the industry rather than what others expected of him.
“Through all that, I finally realised there are some people that are never gonna like me no matter what I do, and in a way that was really freeing because then I was like I don’t have to worry about that anymore, what do I wanna do?”
Perry returned to AEW programming at All Out in September 2025 following a nine-month absence. Upon his return, he attacked The Young Bucks and reunited with his former partner Luchasaurus, effectively reforming Jurassic Express. The duo has since re-entered the tag team division, targeting the teams that capitalized on their time apart.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Up Close with Renee Paquette with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
