CM Punk is trying to clear the air before returning to All Elite Wrestling.
Ahead of his return tomorrow night in Chicago on AEW Collision, CM Punk sat down with Marc Raimondi of ESPN to discuss a wide variety of subjects. When asked about the controversial All Out media scrum, Punk said he’s personally apologized to Tony Khan for the scrum and putting him in that position.
“The first thing I said to Tony when I sat down with him and spoke to him after it was, ‘Man, I’m really sorry I put you in that position,'” Punk said. “I apologize for the scrum. But when you’ve watched that scrum, you’re looking at a very, very frustrated guy who had told people. That’s not the first time he heard all that. It’s not the first time lawyers were told all that.
“And I was just looking for something to be done and nothing got done. So, if you want something done right, you got to do it yourself. And I just didn’t approach it in the right manner, but tension was high. I was very, very pissed. I pretty much knew that I had just injured myself again. I was hurt, and I was disappointed. Yeah, it’s very easy for me to say I regret that and I handled it the wrong way, 100%.”
As far as the infamous “Brawl Out” scuffle between CM Punk and The Elite that occurred backstage following the scrum, Punk said he wants to move past that and doesn’t think what happened was a big deal because stuff like this happens in every other sport all the time.
“I don’t think what happened was a big deal…” Punk said. “This has happened in the last 10 months in hockey, in basketball, in baseball, in just about every sport. And it’s covered and it’s gone the next day. I think because I have injured my tricep and I’ve been out for so long, I think it has been exacerbated. I think it’s been exacerbated by people spreading lies about the whole thing. And when, in reality, my attitude is, well, s— happens.”
Since the incident, CM Punk has attempted to contact The Elite but has been shut down by lawyers in the process. As much as Punk would like to turn what happened into a storyline, he’s been told that will not occur. The former two-time AEW Champion is hopeful to have a sit-down discussion with The Elite soon, but it hasn’t happened yet.
“Now we all got to roll in the f—ing mud, and that never should have happened and has never been course-corrected,” Punk said. “So, I understand people want to say that, ‘Oh, man, Punk is a dick.’ Well yeah, because I’m defending myself and I will always defend myself. I’m open to have a full-blown f—ing sit-down powwow discussion with everybody about it. But it hasn’t happened yet, and it’s not because of my lack of trying.”
Despite everything that happened, Punk doesn’t believe at any point he had any serious intentions of leaving the company.
“I certainly had some low moments, and I won’t rule out in those fleeting moments where I just say, ‘Ah, f— this, whatever,'” Punk said. “But I don’t ever think it was a serious intention to say that I’m done. There’s still work to do, and I think I’m excited about a lot of stuff that’s coming up. So, to just throw the baby out with the bathwater, just because of a little boo-boo, I think would be a little silly.”
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What do you make of CM Punk’s comments? Are you hopeful that Tony Khan can get CM Punk and The Elite together in a room soon to hash this all out? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
