-- CM Punk made a shocking departure from AEW almost a year ago, getting terminated with just cause after a backstage altercation with Jack Perry. Since leaving and then returning to WWE, Punk has not talked a lot about his time in AEW but did offer some thoughts on SI Media with Jimmy Traina when he was asked about whether he is rooting against his former employers:
"I don’t root against them. I think it’s easy to be able to say like, ‘Oh, can’t wait until 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. It’s just... I look at it like it’s just not the same business that I’m in. And if you’re trying to get paid and you can go there, go get paid. Congratulations."
-- Punk was then asked about his thoughts on AEW airing footage of the backstage brawl with Perry:
"It’s kind of like... I have to wrestle Drew McIntyre, right? Just this garbage person that I don’t want in my life. But this is the fight game, it’s the shit talk business. It’s just like fighting in the UFC. You see these guys ripping at each other, ugly press conferences, getting personal. And it’s just like, I don’t necessarily enjoy that energy. But the payoff is, I get to go in a ring and I get to blacken eyes and chip teeth and make Drew sob and do whatever else in my head that I hope to do to him."
“So it felt really ugly. But then I was just like - why? Showing that footage isn’t going to help them or hurt me, so I was just like whatever...being the top draw in two different companies is pretty wild. Like, thanks guys."
