CM Punk appeared on “The MMA Hour” podcast on Monday to discuss a variety of topics, including his infamous AEW All Out 2022 media scrum which led to the “Brawl Out” backstage fight between himself, Ace Steel, and The Young Bucks.
During the media scrum, Punk took shots at Hangman Page, The Young Bucks, Colt Cabana, and others. The backstage fight led to Punk, Ace Steel, and The Elite being suspended, with Steel being fired. CM Punk would later be fired following his altercation with Jack Perry at AEW All In 2023.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On if Page diverting from what was talked about beforehand in his promo: “What he said didn’t matter to me. If I’m working with you, and we sit and talk. One of the biggest criticisms of WWE is, ‘it’s overly scripted. There are writers. Pro wrestlers don’t need writers.’ Some people don’t. Some people do. Some people prefer it. I sat down with him and we hammered … I was very gracious. We hammered out this promo. ‘You say this, I’ll say this. You say that, I’ll say this. Great.’ Then, he proceeds to go on live TV and not say any of the sh*t we talked about. I can’t hear him because the crowd is so loud. I’m looking at him and I have to really pay attention to what he’s saying because my responses matter. I can’t just say what I had planned because it’s not going to match what he said to me. He’s saying some sh*t, I don’t know what he’s talking about.”
On his reaction to the situation: “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 sh*tting on me. You’re sh*tting 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 bullsh*t 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 scrum: “Getting out there and seeing reporters that report sh*t 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 f**king high school. It’s high school mean girls drama bullsh*t. I get there and I see these goofs and I just lose my temper. Top three CM Punk promo though.”
On Tony Khan sitting next to him during the scrum: “It’s nothing he never heard before… Should have handled it [beforehand].”
On what he did after the scrum: “Went home. Got surgery. Got my arm fixed.”
On not being able to talk about what went down backstage after the scrum: “I don’t think I can. I didn’t have to sign an NDA for anything I did wrong. It means I have nothing to hide. There is an NDA in place for that one. I wish I never did the scrum. Scrums are stupid anyway. Those things are really cringe … You would have to ask the person [Tony Khan] that wanted me to sign a NDA [why it’s in place]. Yeah. I didn’t want anybody to sign a NDA to hide some bullsh*t that I did.”
On the whole incident growing in reputation since then: “I don’t know. Why does anyone want to talk about it? It’s grown into this ridiculous thing. Believe who you want.”
On if he thought he was close to being released after it: “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.”
On his deal at the time and returning to TV: “Yeah, maybe I’m the stupid mark and should have been like, ‘My arm is not healed.’ I don’t think my deal was almost done. I think I had a year left.”
On his relationship with Roman Reigns: “It’s all business, baby. I’m not here to make friends. I have some friends from my prior ten years. If I make friends along the way, that’s sprinkles on top of the cupcake. I’m here to do business and make money. The ironic thing about that. You wind up becoming friends with the people you make money with.”
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.”
