CM Punk Addresses AEW All Out Brawl, Tried Reaching Out To The Elite, Tony Khan Relationship

CM Punk is returning to AEW this Saturday for a trios match on the premiere episode of Collision. The return comes after the All Out 2022 press conference incident where he ripped countless wrestlers and brawled with The Elite.

The highly anticipated ESPN interview dropped this morning, where Punk talked about the brawl. 

Punk said he had regrets about his comments at the media scrum and has since apologized to AEW President Tony Khan for it. He said their relationship is now “great.”

“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%.”

Regarding the brawl, Punk doesn’t like to say “no comment” but that “we are trying to move past what happened that night specifically.” As previously reported, there are NDAs in place for everyone involved and can’t publicly talk about the incident. 

“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.”

Punk stated he hadn’t spoken with Kenny Omega or The Young Bucks following the brawl, although he tried, and when doing so, he will get “messages from lawyers saying, ‘Do not contact this person.’” 

Punk doesn’t know whether these messages are from The Elite or lawyers. He has been told that using the incident to try to set up matches won’t happen and resents that he’s been painted as “the bad guy” in reports. 

“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.”

You can check out the full interview here.

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