CM Punk has addressed AEW's decision to air the footage of his and Jack Perry's backstage altercation at All In 2023. Last year's event at Wembley Stadium was opened by Punk facing Samoa Joe for the "Real" AEW World Championship, but found itself overcast by a scuffle moments before between Punk and Perry after the now-TNT Champion took a sly dig at the "Straight Edge Superstar" during his own Zero Hour pre-show match against Hook. To build Perry's return as "The Scapegoat," AEW decided to air the CCTV footage of the incident on "AEW Dynamite" in April, divisive for the fact that Punk has been with WWE since November. 

"It felt really ugly," Punk told "Sports Illustrated." "I was 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 wild, thanks guys." Punk likened the footage airing to his current vendetta with Drew McIntyre, through which they are scheduled to face each other at SummerSlam on Saturday, on the basis that he understands that he is in the fight business. He said, "It's kinda like, I have to wrestle Drew McIntyre, right? This garbage person I don't want in my life. But this is the fight game, it's the sh**-talk business."

When Punk made his surprising return to WWE following his firing from AEW last year, there were a select few that made their ill-feelings towards him abundantly clear. Two of which will be involved in Punk's SummerSlam bout: his opponent, Drew McIntyre, and the special guest referee, Seth Rollins. The three shared the ring during last week's "WWE Raw" to lay their grievances out ahead of the event, but their segment ultimately ended with an enraged face-off between the two opponents.