CM Punk broke his silence after All Elite Wrestling released footage of his controversial backstage brawl with Jack Perry in August, in which he was fired.
AEW aired security footage of the real-life fight at ‘All in: London’ that showed him confronting Jack Perry, shoving him, choking him and throwing a punch.
All of this took place just steps from the Wembley crowd and, by September, Punk had been sacked. He signed with WWE in November.
Footage of the altercation aired on AEW’s flagship weekly television show ‘Dynamite’, just over a week after Punk trashed the company during a two-hour interview with journalist Ariel Helwani. Several things he said are contradicted by the video.
Now, Punk has broken his silence by posting an Instagram story that seemingly addresses the development.
CM Punk (right) broke his silence after AEW aired footage of his fight with Jack Perry that got him fired last year.
He shared a photo of George W. Bush’s infamous “Mission Accomplished” speech from 2001, where he declared victory in Iraq.
He shared a photo of George W. Bush in his infamous “Mission Accomplished” speech in 2013, when the US president declared that the United States and its allies had prevailed in Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussain.
In reality, the Iraqi insurgency gained momentum and eventually turned into a civil war, with US troops not fully withdrawing until 2011.
Punk’s peculiar post comes after he gave his version of events in his interview with Helwani on ‘MMA Hour’.
He He told Helwani that Perry stepped on him and the fight started, without any of that happening in the footage.
Punk also references that he had “people with him,” but the footage shows him approaching Perry alone.
‘Jack returned from his match. I’m the next party, I’m sitting there. I have people with me,’ he began.
“I go up to him and say, ‘Jack, why do you insist on doing this Internet nonsense on TV?’ He says, ‘If you have a problem, do something about it.’
Punk started the fight by choking Perry before landing the only punch during the incident.
He signed with WWE in November and has since given his own version of events (which contradicts the images).
‘I was like, ‘Come on man.’ I can kill you. What are we doing?
‘I thought I was doing the responsible thing. I didn’t hit anyone. I just choked someone a little. Samoa Joe was there and told me to stop. He left.
‘I thought I was doing the responsible thing. I didn’t hit anyone. I just choked someone a little. Samoa Joe was there and told me to stop. He left.
“I turned to Tony and said, ‘This place is a fucking joke. You’re a clown. I left it”.
“I went to my room, Joe and Jerry Lynn came to get me and we said, ‘Let’s go out and kill him.’ I was too excited. I’m excited now. I’ll probably regret talking about all this shit, but that’s what happened.”
At the end of the night, the company’s CEO, Tony Khan, apparently “feared for his life” and was allegedly pushed into television monitors later that night. The images do not show this turn of events.
Punk is seen violently reaching for someone off camera before disappearing from view to end the footage. Perry does not throw any punches during the incident.
‘All In: London’ is considered the company’s biggest show of all time, with more than 80,000 people at Wembley Stadium.
Punk claimed he didn’t hit anyone, but footage released by AEW shows he does.
Perry defeated HOOK in the pre-show, while Punk defeated Samoa Joe in his final AEW match.
Both Punk and Perry were originally suspended for the incident, and neither has wrestled for the company after that day.
Punk was fired ‘for cause’ a few weeks later. He returned to WWE at ‘Survivor Series’ last November.