CM Punk says he doesn’t root against AEW.
CM Punk had a turbulent run in AEW. His time there included the infamous Brawl Out scandal. He also had a backstage altercation with Jack Perry that led to his termination in September 2023. Punk then returned to WWE at WWE Survivor Series 2023.
Speaking on the SI Media podcast with Jimmy Traina, CM Punk was asked whether he roots against AEW. He stated that he did not. Punk also explained that he didn’t think they were in the same business.
“No, I don’t root against them,” CM Punk said. “I think it’s easy to be able to say, ‘Oh, can’t wait til something bad happens to them.’ But the reality is there’s a lot of people backstage that earn a paycheck. I still have friends that work there, so it’s not like I’m hoping somebody loses their job or everybody loses their job or something like that. I look at it like it’s just not the same business that I’m in. If you’re trying to get paid and you can go there, go get paid. Congratulations.”
The video can be seen here:
CM Punk On Returning To WWE
During the interview, CM Punk also looked back on returning to WWE. He was asked whether he ever thought that he would come back.
“Obviously, my attitude ten years ago was, I’m done with wrestling. And there’s certain people that want to kind of crucify me for that, but the truth is, I was just so burnt out,” Punk said. “You dedicate your life to something, and it took me X amount of years to get to WWE, and I was there for ten years. People don’t realize, who’s the one guy that wrestled the most matches every year in WWE for consecutive years? It was me. I was burnt out.
“It takes a while to come back from burning out,” he continued. “Across the board, everybody I feel like has done it in some way. Paul Heyman left, Paul Heyman came back. I think the door being opened with Vince leaving I think really kind of almost expedited things. Being told that it’s a completely different place and kind of having to have blind faith to go back into that is a risk. But now, I can tell you I think it’s a completely different place.”
Punk was then asked whether he thought he would have come back if Vince McMahon was still involved. He responded by saying that he didn’t think so.
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