WWE’s Stance On CM Punk’s Major Real-Life Incident Revealed
There is some new information about how WWE feels about CM Punk’s recent interaction with a fan.
For the first time in his legendary career, CM Punk was in a championship match on WrestleMania Sunday when he defended the World Heavyweight Title against Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 42. While Punk was in the main event of WrestleMania 41, which was on Saturday, it was a triple threat match without a title match. This match with Reigns felt like the true main event.
Reigns would go on to defeat Punk in a legendary WrestleMania main event that has earned a lot of praise, including a 5-star match rating from the Wrestling Observer and yours truly. They went over 30 minutes, and an exhausted Punk wasn’t able to hit a second GTS in a row, so Reigns hit his Spear twice to get the win and the title.
Following that legendary WrestleMania 42 match on April 19th, TMZ obtained footage of CM Punk confronting a fan. In a video shot by another fan nearby, it showed that Punk’s WWE friend, Bayley, was hugging Punk’s wife, AJ Lee, in the lobby of the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino on the Vegas Strip. It’s well known that Bayley and Lee are close friends. While Bayley hugged Lee, a fan was filming a video of it, so an enraged Punk smacked the phone out of the man’s hand.
The fan backed away at that point and was seen saying “sorry” to Punk, who may have said an expletive or two. The fan said “bad day” to Punk as well, referencing Punk’s WrestleMania loss. Punk’s good friend, former wrestler Ace Steel, was also seen in the video trying to calm Punk down. Punk would go on leave with Lee.
In the days that followed, TMZ obtained footage from the fan whose phone Punk slapped. That footage clearly showed that the fan followed Bayley as she hugged Lee. In the video, Bayley could be heard saying, “Go away, dude. Get out of here.” She even reached out to get the guy to move away. That was when Punk stepped in to hit the phone out of the fan’s hand.
As for what the fan wants, he told TMZ he wants an apology from CM Punk and that he’s not going to the cops about what happened. It’s not known if Punk plans to apologize.
Fightful Select reports that Punk “faced no disciplinary action for the fan incident during WrestleMania week,” so it’s unlikely that Punk will be punished for what he did.
CM Punk’s Action Supported By WWE Hall Of Famer JBL
While addressing CM Punk’s phone-smacking incident on his Something to Wrestle podcast, WWE Hall of Famer John Bradshaw Layfield defended Punk’s actions because Punk was protecting his wife.
“I don’t blame him. That’s his wife, and I don’t blame him at all. He’s taking care of his wife. He’s protecting her, and I think I would have done probably the same thing, right or wrong.
I have no idea if it’s right or wrong. I don’t know what the laws are regarding it. I don’t think it was an invasion of privacy, and if somebody asked him not to do it, he should have stopped. And getting the phone slapped out of your hand, that’s not a big deal. So what, you know, hey, you have a story the rest of your life to tell about it.
But I don’t think it’s a big deal, and I don’t blame CM Punk for doing that.”
The footage of the phone incident is below.
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