CM Punk appeared on The MMA Hour. The interview, which ran about 2 hours or so, covered a lot about his time in AEW, his issues with The Elite, Colt Cabana, Tony Khan, Jack Perry, and more.
CM Punk on his injury in the 2024 Royal Rumble
“I knew immediately. I knew this wasn’t good. It happened not that far into it. I still had a bit to go. You make split second decisions I think in situations like that. I have famously been in Royal Rumbles before where I probably should have been taken out of them, but this wasn’t a concussion. This was one of those things where I grab my arm, dig my finger right in there where my tricep is supposed to be and there’s just a big hole and I just go, okay, it’s gone. It can’t get any worse. You just kind of power through. That’s a situation where I think it’s acceptable to make the call as a wrestler.”
On WWE calling him five days before Survivor Series to return to the company:
“I think the call was more of, ‘Hey, we want to talk to you about coming back. We’d love to have you for the Royal Rumble’, because they assumed that I probably had some sort of non-compete or something like that and were kind of floored when I was like, ‘No, I’m ready to go. Let’s do it.’”
On signing a contract before Survivor Series:
“I don’t think they would ever allow me to be on television without signing something. I literally was on the phone, sign, go. I signed and then walked into gorilla and it was like the most crowded elevator. Everyone turned and looked and jaws dropped on the floor and people were like, ‘What?’”
Punk on the difference in the locker room from when he was there before:
“It is friendlier. You have to realize to talk about the way the culture is now, you have to talk about the way the culture was when I got there when I showed up. It was very much shark tank, cut throat, super competitive,and everybody looked at me like, ‘F**k you. Why are you here? You don’t belong here.’ I was on television with nothing but top guys. I mean, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker, Ric Flair, Kurt Angle, Kane, and there’s probably like five other guys I’m 100% forgetting. It was brutal and to try to scratch and claw and get recognized and noticed, and to get that little bit of TV time I was allotted, it was a lot a lot different. Now, I think it’s more laid back. I think that’s probably the best way to say it. It’s a relaxed atmosphere.”
Punk on what were the WrestleMania plans if he did not get injured:
“The plan I think was going to be me and Seth (for the belt on night one).”
On the Jack Perry incident:
“Tony’s big idea was a separate show and we are going to separate everybody. I said, ‘That will never work. Just let me go. Get me out of here. Pay me my money. I’m already off TV. I hurt 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 that’s 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 let you go. I’m gonna do this new show.’ The second day we have this show, I’m sitting in catering minding my own business. Tony Schiavone comes and gets me and he said, ‘Hey, I really need your help. Jack is cussing me out. He’s cussed out Mike Mansury, he cussed out Darryl from production, and he’s cussing out the doctor right now.’ I was like, ‘Dude isn’t supposed to be here. I was told people are getting separated so there’s not problems and you don’t want me involved in this. 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. He’s begging me. He drags me out of catering. Hook and Jack are doing an angle. I don’t know anything about Jack going on vacation. All I know is there’s a litany of people that work one day a week. They don’t want to, so they want to show up and wrestle and then film vignettes and then sit at home for four weeks. Great. It’s not my company. Do what you want, but not on my show. That was my attitude, so I said, ‘Tony, do you really want me doing this?’ ‘Yeah.’ I walked up to Jack and he’s sitting in a rental car. What he wanted to do was smash the window of the rental car with a pipe. I was like, ‘It’s a rental car.’ I was very polite because I like Jack and I was like, ‘Doc told you no. Darryl told you no. Mike told you no. Schiavone told you no. Now I have to tell you no. Apparently you cussed them all out, so I’m telling you no. We don’t do that here. If you want to do this, go to Wednesday and do it.’ He had no problem. He said, ‘Okay. Well I thought it was a really cool idea.’ I said, ‘It might be but it’s a rental car. You’re gonna ruin it for the boys. You’re gonna smash the window of a rental car and return it with no f**king window and now National, Budget, Hertz, whatever are going to be like, don’t rent cars to pro wrestlers anymore.’ This is a thing that’s happened. I wasn’t trying to throw my weight around, like, this is my show. I’m like, this is dumb and he wanted to do it so he wouldn’t have to fly back to Canada. Sorry, man. We’re privileged to be in this. We’re privileged to do this for a living. I get it. I didn’t want to go to Canada either. All the flights were either delayed or canceled. Everybody’s travel sucked, but to come to this new show and everyone’s supposed to be separated, get rid of all the drama and then there’s swearing at the doctors because the doctor is like, it’s real glass. The shits gonna go in your eye. I get it. I used to be that kid that was young and I was like, I want to do this, but there’s a safe way to do it. I politely explained that to him. I didn’t raise my voice. I didn’t cuss at him. I said, ‘We don’t do that here. This is Saturday. It’s a different show. If you want to do stuff like that, do it on Wednesday.’ I didn’t think there was going to be a problem. He obviously took something very business-minded very personally. That’s fine because I’ve done that before too, but it’s very much who he is friends with and sh*t never got squashed. Nobody’s in charge and it turned into what it turned into.”
Ariel said, “The match is over. He goes to the back. What happens?”
Punk said, “I went to Tony Khan and I was like, ‘Please handle that.’ He was like, ‘What do you want me to do?’ I was like, ‘I’m not telling you what to do. Be the boss please. I’m tired of this sh*t. I told you it was a mistake. I told you separate shows weren’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.”
Ariel: “Did he handle it?”
Punk: “No.’
Ariel: “So you did?”
Punk: “Yea”
Ariel: “What happened?”
Punk: “Jack came back from his match. I was the next match. I’m sitting there and I got people with me. I’m not going to say who they are because I have a lot of friends who work there. I wish them all well and I don’t want them to be punished because they’re friends with me. I walk up to him and I’m like, ‘Jack, why do you insist on doing this dumb internet sh*t on TV?’ He’s like, ‘Well, if you got a problem about it, then do something about it.’ I was just like, ‘C’mon man. I can f**king 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. He 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 were like, ‘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 sh*t, but that’s what happened.”
Punk on Tony Khan saying he feared for his life:
“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, but you know, he’s who he is.”
We have more from the interview on our X/Twitter at @wrestlingnewsco. Watch the full interview below.
