He Talks A Lot: CM Punk Opens Up About AEW Departure, WWE Return In Huge, Lengthy Interview

He likes to talk. There are certain wrestlers who are known for what they can do in the ring and there are certain wrestlers who are known for what they can do with a microphone. It is a rare situation when you find someone who can do both but it makes for a special situation. That is the case with a certain wrestler, who had quite a bit to say about a place where he previously worked.

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WWE’s CM Punk was a guest on the MMA Hour this week and spoke extensively about his time in AEW as well as his return to WWE. The interview (Punk comes in at about 1:04:20) covered several topics, with Punk revealing multiple details about what led to him being fired from AEW. Here are some of the highlights, with transcription courtesy of Fightful:

On Hangman Page Changing Their Promo

“I’m like, ‘Why would you do this? Why would you ruin…’ TV is very expensive. Every minute of TV is hundreds of thousands of dollars between production and all that stuff. You’re shitting on me. You’re shitting on the business. Why would you do this? I knew the promo ended with him punching me and I had to double leg him. ‘Why is he doing this?’ I didn’t know what was going on, but I was professional and afterwards, I spoke to him and was like, ‘Why would you do that?’ He thinks I got one of his friends, who hasn’t been fired, fired. I went to Tony and the lawyer and I said, ‘You need to fix that. If I do, you’re not going to like the way I fix it.’ I thought I was being professional by not just murdering him on television.

“With me, respect is the default. I respect everybody until you do something that makes me lose my respect for you. I had never done anything to any of those guys. If they’re basing how their attitude is towards me based on some bullshit a friend told them, I can’t help you. I have plenty of friends who don’t like certain people, I keep relationships business. Everything went off the rails from there. It’s a shame.”

On The All Out 2022 Media Scrum

“Getting out there and seeing reporters that report shit about you like it’s fact without ever checking with you to see if stuff happened, who are openly friends with other wrestlers, it’s just fucking high school. It’s high school mean girls drama bullshit. I get there and I see these goofs and I just lose my temper. Top three CM Punk promo though.”

On Rehabbing His Torn Tricep In AEW

“Nobody in the company spoke to me for six months. Paid for surgery, booked my surgery, thankfully Doc Sampson, who I knew from WWE and have a good rapport with, he helped me with that, but I was on my own with all that stuff. If you think I deserve to be fired or treated like that. That’s your opinion. The recovery for this surgery and that one is night and day. It’s almost a comparison between the two places where there is structure and protocols and professional people in charge of things and I’m not having to research and find a PT spot. I had no help. Nothing. That’s insane to me. Is that how they treat Jaguars players? I don’t know. I don’t think anybody should be treated like that if you’re a pro athlete. I had no help. Nobody would speak to me.”

Also from Fightful:

On Jack Perry’s “Real Glass” Line At All In

“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. 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.’”

On His Original Disagreement With Perry

“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. 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 f**king dumb. 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.”

On Tony Khan’s Reaction And The Backstage Incident With Perry At All In

“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.’”

“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 f**king 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 f**king 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.”

On Working For Tony Khan

“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.”

Also from Fightful:

On His Relationship With Triple H

“I think I’m more reserved than he wants me to be. I don’t want to rock the boat. I’m not trying to do this. We’ve had some great conversations and I’m part of the team. I’m doing what I can. I’m sure my responsibilities might grow in the future. I’m totally stoked doing what I’m doing.”

From Wrestling Inc:

On How He Began A New Relationship With WWE

“The action of it started the week of, I think, Thanksgiving… I’d have to look at a calendar to figure out dates exactly. I remember times and places of where I was when I would get phone calls and such. And I had a CFFC show coming up, I think. So I got a call from Nick Khan, and he was just like ‘Hey, we want to talk to you.’ And I was like ‘Cool. [I’m] on my way to the gym, and I have this coming up. CFFC, I’ll be back.’ ‘Cool, you want to talk Monday?’ ‘Great.’

“So it was the week of Thanksgiving. I spoke to him Monday…The call, I’m always so nervous about pulling the curtain back on stuff, but I think the call was more about ‘Hey, we want to talk about you coming back. We’d love you for Royal Rumble.’ Cause they assumed that I probably had some sort of noncompete or something like that, and were kind of floored when I was like ‘No man, I’m ready to go. Let’s do it.”

And On His Relationship With Triple H

“It’s funny because everyone calls him Paul [now]…I always call him Triple H or Hunter. When I spoke to him, that’s when the ball really got rolling, you know? Cause it was a very…I asked him if he wanted to talk on the phone, and he said ‘No. I would actually rather kind of like to face-time you, so I can see you.’ And I was like ‘Oh, that’s interesting.’ We just talked about a whole lot of stuff, and about stuff that was at one point serious to probably both of us…that is silly now. And we just kind of laughed and buried the hatchet. And then we started talking business.”

Punk is currently out of action with a torn tricep and is expected to return to the ring later this fall.

There is A LOT here. Check out Punk’s time since his return to WWE:

Opinion: My goodness that is a lot and there was a good bit more that wasn’t included. Punk has been on a rollercoaster of a run in the last few years and it is a shame that he is out of action again. To say that he has one of the biggest voices in the wrestling world today would be an understatement and hopefully he is able to get back in the ring and back it up sooner than later. And hopefully longer than he previously did.