CM Punk spoke with Ariel Helwani for a bombshell interview.
Punk spoke about his WWE return, AEW departure and much more.
In relation to the Jack Perry-CM Punk story, we're told by those in AEW that the issue wasn't as much that Punk didn't want the glass to be used. Instead it was that Punk had recounted the story to media and talent to the point to where the disagreement went public, after he'd had similar grievances in the past. We're told that his recounting of the original disagreement was accurate.
Several members of the AEW roster posted tweets of support for the company during the interview. When we reached out to one talent, they said that it was more about supporting the company than anything. One supporter of Punk's in AEW said that the interview was bound to happen, and that they personally hope that's the last they hear of it until hopefully one day fences are mended.
It is important to note that individual talent reactions don't reflect this outlet, or the company they're in.
The WWE talent we reached out to were all over the place. One talent said that they figured that Punk would answer the AEW questions before too long, even though there's an NDA in place. Another talent said they actually preferred it to be the week of Mania, in hopes that most people just forget about it and move on to wrestling by the time the weekend rolls around.
"More than anything, what the interview showed was that this was preventable from all sides," said one veteran AEW talent. "Punk is happy, AEW talent moved on, so hopefully everyone just learns from it and makes amends in the future."
There are some elements of a non-disparagement that those close to Punk confirmed was in place related to his AEW departure, so we'll have to see how that plays out.
All we've heard thus far in WWE has been so far, so good with CM Punk. Those that we've spoken to on the exec side of WWE didn't believe Punk really wanted to broach the subject of AEW, but knew it was likely going to come up. They said that Punk isn't likely to be subjected to a heavy media schedule this last like some others in the company, as he's still recovering from an injury.
As reported on Fightful Select last week, there have been no subsequent issues between Punk, Seth Rollins and Drew McIntyre that we've heard of.
Punk confirmed that in addition to commentary, he was also set for the Kickoff show for WrestleMania. A referee role was briefly mentioned backstage, but we're told because he wasn't cleared it was quickly shot down.
During the interview, he confirmed several Fightful Select reports -- including being backstage at WWE Raw last year before being instructed to leave by proxy via Vince McMahon. He also confirmed Fightful's report that nobody in WWE was aware of his return before the day of, noting that only lawyers, Triple H, AJ Lee and Nick Khan knew. Our report of Punk approaching AEW legal and management was confirmed. He also confirmed that at the time of Punk references on WWE Raw, he'd not been contacted. Most importantly, he confirmed that he want to Nando's after fighting Jack Perry.
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