CM Punk tells his side of everything that happened at AEW All In in Wembley Stadium.
CM Punk would wrestle his last match for AEW at AEW All In 2023. In his final match, he defeated Samoa Joe, but prior to the match, he was allegedly involved in a backstage incident with Jack Perry, which caused AEW to fire him and Jack Perry still hasn't returned to AEW TV.
Speaking on the MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, Punk recounted all the details of the night from his perspective, starting with nobody being there to pick him up from the airport.
"There is nobody there to pick me up. It’s not a big deal. I got on the two, ‘adventure.’ That part was fun, but it’s completely irresponsible as a company to leave somebody stranded at an airport. I understand the sentiments and the smarties on Twitter, ‘Take an Uber you big crybaby.’ I never cried about it once. Not once," he recalled.
Punk says he was in his locker room when Jack Perry made the comment about "real glass" during his Zero Hour FTW Championship defense against HOOK. To Punk, it was obvious the remark was directed at him.
"Yes, obviously was directed at me. There are always these rumors about NDAs. There is a big difference between not being allowed to talk about some shit, or not wanting to talk about some shit. I don’t necessarily want to litigate this again," he said. "Tony’s big idea was a separate show. We’re going to separate everybody. I said, ‘That’ll never work, just let me go. Get me out of here. Pay me money. I’ve been off TV. Just let 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 let you go. I’m going to do this new show.’"
Punk then explained the original interaction he had with Jack Perry in regards to a spot that Jack wanted to do where he broke the glass of a rental car. Punk explained that Tony Schiavone asked him to intervene with Perry, who allegedly had cursed out several staff members.
Punk says he told Perry that if he wanted to do his spot, he could do that on Wednesdays but not on AEW Collision, which was originally created to be a show built around cM Punk with a separate roster from AEW Dynamite.
"The second day, we have this show, I’m sitting in catering, minding my own business, and Tony Schiavone comes and gets me, ‘I really need your help.’ ‘What?’ ‘Jack is cussing me out, he cussed out Mike Mansury, he cussed out Daryl from production, he’s cussing out the doctor right now.’ ‘Why?’ I was immediately like, ‘Dude isn’t supposed to be here. I was told people are getting separated so there are not problems. You don’t want me involved in this. Just like everything I explained before, y'all need to handle this. If you don’t, I’m going to handle it and you’re not going to like the way I handle it.’ He’s begging me. He drags me out of catering. HOOK and Jack are doing an angle," Punk said. "I don’t know anything about Jack going on vacation. All I know is there are a litany of people that work one day a week and they don’t want to. They want to show up, wrestle, and film vignettes then sit at home for four weeks. Great. Not my company, do what you want, but not on my show. That was my attitude. I said, ‘Tony, you really want me doing this?’ ‘Yeah.’ I walked up to Jack, he’s sitting in the 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 very politely, because I like Jack, ‘Doc has told you no. Daryl has told you no. Mike has told you no. Schiavone has told you no. Now, I have to tell you no. Apparently, you’ve cussed them all out. I’m telling you no. We don’t do that here. You want to do this, go to Wednesday and do it.’ He had no problem. He said, ‘Okay. I just thought it was a cool idea.’ I said, ’It might be. This is a rental car. The boys are in it for the boys. You’re going to smash the window of a rental car and return it with no window? Now, National Budget is going to be like, ‘Don’t rent cars to pro wrestlers anymore.’ This is a thing that has happened.
"I wasn’t trying to throw my weight around, ‘this is my show, you have to get out of here.’ It’s just fucking dumb," he continued. "He wanted to do it so he didn’t have to fly back to Canada. Sorry man, we’re privileged to be in this business and do this for a living. I get it. I didn’t want to go to Canada either. All the flights were delayed, canceled. Everyone’s traveling sucked. To come to this new show when everyone is supposed to be separated, to get rid of all the drama. Swearing at the doctor. The doctor is like, ‘it’s real glass. Shit is going to go in your eye.’ I get it. I used to be that kid who was young and wanted to do this. There is a safe way to do this. I politely explained that to him. I didn’t raise my voice. I didn’t cuss at him. I was just like, ‘We don’t do that here. This is Saturday. You want to do stuff like this, do it on Wednesday.’ That was it. I didn’t think it was going to be a problem. He obviously took something very business-minded, very personally. That’s fine. I’ve done that before too. It’s very much who he is friends with and shit never got squashed. Nobody is in charge. It turned into what it turned into."
Getting back to Wembley Stadium, Punk it says he told Tony Khan to handle things with Jack Perry because, again, he didn't think people would like it if he handled it the way he wanted to.
"I went to Tony Khan and was like, ‘Please handle that. Please.’ He’s like, ‘What do you want me to do?’ ‘I’m not telling you what to do. Just be the boss, please. I’m tired of this shit. 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. If you don’t, you’re not going to like the way I handle it.’"
CM Punk then tells his side of what happened and Wembley Stadium with Jack Perry, including a note that he told Tony Khan he was quitting before going out to have the match with Samoa Joe.
Punk also confirms that Samoa Joe is the person who broke up the physicality by telling him to stop.
"Jack came back from his match. I’m the next match, I’m sitting there. I got people with me. I’m not going to say who they are because I have 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," he said. "I walk up to him and I’m like, ‘Jack, why do you insist on doing this dumb internet shit on TV?’ He’s like, if you have a problem, do something about it.' I was like, ‘Come on man. I can fucking kill you. What are we doing?’ It’s like Chael [Chael Sonnen] says, ‘I can’t let you get close.’ I thought I was doing the responsible thing. I didn’t punch anybody. I just choked somebody a little bit. Samoa Joe was there, told me to stop. I quit. I turned to Tony and said, ‘This place is a fucking joke. You’re a clown. I quit.’ I went to my room, Joe and Jerry Lynn came and got me and we're like, ‘Let’s go out there and kill it.’ I was too fired up. I’m fired up now. I’m probably going to regret talking about all this shit, but that’s what happened," he said. "That match, I’m like, this is the last time I’m ever going to wrestle Samoa Joe. This is my last match in this company."
When asked if he really knew it was his last match, Punk responded, "Yeah. I said, ‘I fucking quit.’"
Punk says he made the decision to go out and perform for the fans, Samoa Joe, Jerry Lynn, and referee Paul Turner. He wanted to give everyone a proper show.
"For Joe. For Paul Turner, the referee, and for Jerry Lynn, the agent on the match. I respect him. I thought it was the professional thing to do. All the fans. A lot of fans there. Probably, a lot of them, to see me. Go out there and give them a show," he said.
Recounting the rest of his night after his match with Samoa Joe, Punk says he had planned on staying to watch the rest of the show, but decided to leave when he felt as though it would make everyone else's night run smoother.
"They told me Jack was told to leave. I was like, ‘Do I have to leave? I want to watch the show.’ ‘No, it’s fine.’ Then, a couple of matches later, a very nice man by the name of Sam, who is in charge of security was like, ‘What are your plans for the rest of the night?’ ‘I was going to shower and hang out, watch the show.’ The whole solo locker room thing is fucking lame. I had Joe, House of Black, all these guys with me. I just wanted to watch the match. He looked at me and I went, ‘Is it easier for you and your job if I leave?’ He’s like, ‘It might be, but nobody is telling you that you have to go.’ I was like, ‘Sam, I’m a man. Man to man, I’m not trying to fuck up your day. You have a job to do. if it’s easier for you if I split, I’ll split.’ I went, got Nandos for a bunch of the boys, and went to my hotel. When the show was over, they came by and we ate chicken."
CM Punk says he never spoke to Tony Khan after that day in Wembley Stadium. When asked about Tony's comments that he feared for his life following me incident, Punk said that while he can't speak for Tony, he doesn't feel he did anything to make Tony feel so afraid.
"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. He’s who he is," said Punk.
Punk does feel, however, that there was an effort to slander him and he believes that was the starting point for all of the ensuing drama.
"There was a concerted effort to slander me and ruin my character. That’s kind of the genesis of all the drama. Don’t do that," he began. "Why are you doing that to a guy who works for your company? Why are you lying? Why are you spreading rumors, lies, and bullshit about your top guy? It doesn’t make any sense. You’re only hurting yourself. Jealousy, envy, I don’t know. It’s an unfortunate situation. I have a lot of friends there. There are a lot of good people who work there. I hope they continue to get paid. I wish them well."
Overall, when asked how it is to work for Tony Khan, Punk said that Tony is a nice guy but he didn't feel like Tony was enough of a boss, and in his opinion, that could wind up being a detriment to the company.
"It’s a loaded question. I don’t like the drama, but the truth is the truth. He is not a boss. He’s a nice guy. Ultimately, that is a detriment to the company, but it’s not my company. I’m an outsider. I thought I was brought in to sell merchandise and tickets and draw numbers for pay-per-view. I clearly did that, but that’s not what the place is about, and some people didn’t like that."
Ultimately neither CM Punk nor Jack Perry have been seen on AEW TV since then. Tony Khan has insisted on offering "no comment" in regard to CM Punk since the incident.
Jack Perry is currently working for NJPW and he has dubbed himself "Scapegoat."
CM Punk is currently out injured with a triceps injury but will commentate on the World Heavyweight Championship match at WrestleMania XL between Seth Rollins and Drew McIntyre.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the original source with an H/T and link back to Fightful for the transcription.
