During MJF’s new interview on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, the AEW world champ called back to his kayfabe story from late 2021 / early 2022 by making it clear that he thinks WWE star CM Punk is a piece of shit, albeit a piece of shit who is great at pro wrestling.
“I loved CM Punk growing up, and now if he was dying in front of me, I’d do nothing but laugh…Don’t get me wrong. I like CM Punk matches too, I just think he’s a piece of shit.”
CM has received plenty of criticism for turning into Corporate Man Punk following his return to WWE in late 2023, which includes apologizing to Saudi Arabia for telling The Miz to “Go suck a blood money covered dick in Saudi Arabia you fucking dork.” More recently, Punk told the No-Contest Wrestling Podcast that he doesn’t see any difference between main eventing night one and night two of WrestleMania, despite his famous promo in AEW where he mocked WWE’s “buy-one-get-one-free extravaganza.”
With that in mind, MJF commented on Punk’s hypocrisy now that he’s back in WWE:
“I hope he’s able to enjoy what he’s accomplishing over there. I have no idea, because the things that he said in my company do go against the things that he’s saying now. Some people might say that’s hypocritical. That’s not my place.
All I know is, is since I’ve jumped into pro wrestling, I’ve been saying the same thing since the jump. My tune has not changed. I’m Maxwell Jacob Friedman, and I’m better than you, and you know it.
I also won’t sit here and lie to you and tell you that I didn’t learn so much through my hatred of that man. I learned the difference between good and great. That’s what I learned.
Now, do I like him? Again I’ll reiterate, no. I wouldn’t piss on him if he was on fire to put that fire out. But I’m not gonna sit here and pretend I didn’t learn from him.”
MJF was pressed on what exactly the difference is between being good and great, so here is his answer.
“The difference between good and great is this. Good means you can get away with slipping up. It means fans won’t freak out if you do something that’s even lower than perfect.
Great means if you mess up if any capacity, if you stumble, if you tremble, if you backpedal, you’re horrible. That’s the curse of being great. I learned that from him. I learned that from Cody [Rhodes]. And it’s something that I’ve gotten to take with me, and it’s made me a better professional wrestler.
I don’t get to do what everybody else does that’s mediocre. Where, if a mediocre guy has a good night, it’s ‘Did you see that mediocre guy this week? That was crazy!’ When MJF has a good night, it’s ‘Yeah, whatever. That’s normal.’”
MJF is blurring the lines of reality by bringing up the perception that Punk is a hypocrite, but the AEW world champ doesn’t make that judgment for himself. So I’ll leave that up to you, dear reader. Do you think CM Punk has turned into a hypocrite since returning to WWE, and if so, are you surprised? Let me know in the comments below, Cagesiders.