10 Things We Learned From CM Punk’s Interview With Ariel Helwani

It’s the week of WrestleMania and despite not being able to perform on the show of shows CM Punk is still in the news as his interview on the MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani revealed a lot about his departure and problems with AEW and how his return to WWE came to fruition and for the entirety of the 2-hour interview he detailed the good, the bad and the ugly, the only way CM Punk knows how.

10. He Re-signed With WWE Right Before He Walked Out On Survivor Series

IMG Credit: Daily Mail

The wrestling landscape was shifted seismically when Phil Brooks walked out into the Allstate Arena in Chicago at the end of the Men’s WarGames main event at Survivor Series. It came as a massive surprise to fans and wrestling reporters alike that Punk resurfaced as quickly as he did following his highly publicised departure from AEW, revealing own the show that during his discussions with WWE President Nick Khan about potentially coming back that he never had a no-compete clause in his AEW contract which allowed him to resign with WWE anytime he wished. Punk detailed that on thanksgiving week through a FaceTime with Triple H they hashed out their differences and spoke about coming back to WWE again, and that he signed his WWE contract right before he went to the gorilla position to walk out at the end of Survivor Series to once again change the game.

9. He Said AEW Felt Betrayed When He Went Backstage To WWE

IMG Credit: WrestleTalk

During his time in the sidelines injured with a torn triceps in early 2023, and don’t worry we’ll get to that situation later, it was reported that CM Punk was backstage during an edition of Monday Night RAW live from his hometown of Chicago. On the show Punk said he was invited backstage by good friend Bayley to come and say hi and he met up with several WWE talent including Triple H for a few moments before Vince McMahon instructed Punk to leave the building during to him being contracted to AEW which Punk immediately did of his own accord. Once word got back to AEW officials about this fleeting visit, Punk claimed that they felt betrayed by his showing up backstage which he found amusing considering that AEW allow their wrestlers to appear and perform in other promotions shows but chastised him for just showing up backstage to another show.

8. He Was Originally Supposed To Face Seth Rollins At WrestleMania

IMG Credit: Bleacher Report

A curse that has been following CM Punk ever since his return to wrestling in 2021 has been a reoccurring theme of injuries. Suffering a broken foot in June 2022 on an episode of Dynamite during a stage dive into the crowd and then a torn triceps in September of the same year, we’ll get to that one, on which note that injury flared up again during his in-ring return to the WWE at the 2024 Royal Rumble. Soon after entering the match he tore the triceps on the opposite arm to the one he injured in AEW, he confirmed that there was no audible called in the Rumble revealing he was never supposed to win the Rumble. However on the show Punk did say that he was originally supposed to face Seth Rollins for the World Heavyweight Championship on Night 1 of WrestleMania but Punk was very philosophical about it, saying he was not mad about it and that he wouldn’t step on anyone’s toes or steal main events from anyone, he said he’s recovering very well from his surgery and can’t wait to come back to the ring.

7. He Said AEW Isn’t A Business And Not Wasn’t What He Thought It Was

IMG Credit: Inside The Ropes

Upon his sensational return to wrestling in the United Center in Chicago, CM Punk appeared to be the new leader of AEW to help drive them to compete with WWE as the true alternative and to lead them into a thriving business that would grow expediently. or at least that’s what Punk though he was signing up for when he joined in August 2021. He realised AEW weren’t interested in making money, selling tickets or growing the company and that it was an independent promotion with a large budget, appealing to the internet fans, calling them a niche audience who only care about having “5-star matches” claiming that the product that AEW shows is not sustainable to be produced on national television and that it’s being proved right now with AEW’s dwindling attendances and ratings compared to the growth and upward trajectory that WWE is on right now. He has no ill will towards AEW, he wishes everyone well and he hopes it will be successful to help the business and that it will give other wrestlers opportunities to work and make money.

6. He Claims Tony Khan Is Not A Boss And Has No Leadership Skills

IMG Credit: Wrestling News

Obviously one of the biggest discussion points of the interview was about AEW president Tony Khan. Although Punk said Tony was a nice guy, he said he was not a leader and judging by incidents that we know of and what Punk revealed in the interview it’s very hard to argue with that statement. He said there were many times were a lack of leadership and wondering who’s actually in charge became detrimental not only to himself but to the locker room, the promo with Hangman page before Double Or Nothing, the rumours about Colt Cabana being allegedly removed from TV, the incidents that lead to his tirade at the All Out post-show scrum just to name a few. Upon his return from injury in June 2023, he was signed as a producer for Collision and a consultant to Tony Khan, during which time came the confrontation with Jack Perry about using real glass in a segment on Collision after multiple push-backs from others on site that day, Punk made the call to not allow Perry to do the spot, however he shouldn’t have had to deal with it in the first place. Tony Khan as the boss of the promotion should’ve handled that or any of these situations and defused it immediately, instead he allowed them to bubble over into these explosions and has left himself as a figure of ridicule for a lack of control over the people he employs. As Punk said during the interview “Be the boss and please handle that, or I’ll handle it and you won’t like the way I handle it”.

5. He Had To Pay For His Own Surgery After Brawl Out Incident

IMG Credit: WrestleTalk

One of the most startling revelations of the interview was the infamous ‘Brawl Out’ incident at the post-show scrum at All Out 2022. When asked about how he recovered from ‘Brawl Out’ Put revealed that no-one from AEW contacted him for 6 months following the incident, that he paid out of his own pocket to have surgery for his torn triceps which occurred that September night in Chicago and had to book his own rehab because he was excommunicated from the higher-ups in the company, thankfully he contacted Dr. Samson an AEW physician who he knew from WWE who managed to help him through his recovery. During this, Punk heavily implied that the torn triceps occurred during the backstage brawl with company EVP’s The Elite rather than the match with Jon Moxley that night, which if true is staggering that no-one in the company bothered to help out their biggest star with recovery from a serious injury, it highlights both a lack of organisation and also serious negligence which does not reflect well on anyone in AEW at all.

4. He Wanted AEW To Let Him Go & Never Wanted Them To Split The Roster

IMG Credit: Wrestling Headlines

During the hiatus of September 2022 to June 2023, CM Punk said he felt there was too much drama and BS backstage in All Elite Wrestling and that no one in the upper clique, heavily implying company EVP’s The Elite, wanted him there and that it would be better for everyone to just be let go but Tony Khan refused to let him go and pitched him the idea of splitting the roster in half with the creation of AEW Collision. Punk did not like the idea of spreading the wrestlers claiming that he told Tony Khan that it would never work without gathering everyone into a room and hashing out their differences and that the cliques and division between the roster would only get worse and that it would be impossible to make it work but Khan insisted on doing it. Immediately after his return he knew that nothing had changed in the company over his 9 months on the sidelines and he lamented what he was doing and realising the company was in his words, never going to work, that no-one was prepared to make moves to make the changes that he believed were necessary to help AEW move forward.

3. He Quit AEW Right Before His Match At All In: London

IMG Credit: Sports Illustrated

The infamous day of August 27th 2023 at Wembley Stadium in London was cursed for Punk right from when he landed in the UK. Nobody from AEW was there to pick him up from the airport so he had to ride the tube in London to reach his hotel room which he chuckled about the whole situation but claimed it was irresponsible of the company to allow that to happen. Then when Jack Perry uttered those seven immortal words on the buy-in “Real glass, go cry me a river.” Punk pleaded with Khan to fix the problem which Khan responded indifferently. Punk proceeded to take matters into his own hands and he confronted Perry backstage and just asked why he would appealing to internet fans doing dangerous stuff. Perry responded by saying Punk could do something about it and Punk locked Perry in a chokehold before Samoa Joe and others asked him to stop, at which point Punk went to Tony Khan and said “This place is a joke. You’re a clown. I quit.” He then went out in Wembley in front of 80,000 fans to wrestle his match against Samoa Joe before then leaving the stadium during the show, on a suggestion from head of security that it would be easier for him to leave, although he was never asked or told that he had to go, but he did on his own accord and hasn’t spoken to Tony Khan since that fateful night in London.

2. He Says WWE Is Much Friendlier Now Then When He Left

IMG Credit: Wrestling Inc.

Reflecting on the changes he’s already experienced in WWE since his return 4 months ago, Punk feels the locker room atmosphere in WWE now compared to his first time in the company is night and day. His experiences of when he first came to WWE was of a very cutthroat environment and that the tense atmosphere translated with competitiveness to get a spot on TV and having to fight relentlessly for anything which lead to the burnout he felt en route to his infamous walkout in 2014. By comparison today he feels the backstage feeling in WWE today is much more relaxed and friendly, it feels like a team effort by everyone to roused amazing matches and shows and that collaborative effort is what is helping WWE boom upwards to the rebound in popularity that it’s been experiencing even before Punk came back. He feels happy and that instead of stressing about his match and what will happen in the future, he’s enjoying everything as it happens and that he’s looking forward to what happens next.

1. He Has No Regrets About Returning To Wrestling

IMG Credit: PWMania

Summarising at the end of the interview, Punk was asked whether or not he regretted returning to wrestling due to the vast array of incidents and controversies that have happened both to him and directly involving him over the past 2 1/2 years but he emphatically answered no. He has a sense of freedom now to enjoy whatever he does in the future, in reflection he was so possessed about his character and so consumed in all of it that led to him losing his passion for the business the way that he did. But now he feels a level of happiness that he never though he’d feel again and he’s super excited about the future and we as fans cannot wait for the multitude of amazing programs involving our favourite Chicago muffin lover.