CM Punk apologized to fans in Saudi Arabia for his controversial tweet ahead WWE Night of Champions.
Fans booed Punk when he arrived on the WWE Night of Champions kickoff show. The incident saw a fan shout something at him. Punk paused to respond and used the moment to address his past tweet about The Miz. He gave a sincere apology to fans and said he had nothing but love for Saudi Arabia. He added that it was written out of frustration and was not about Saudi Arabia.
CM Punk’s unexpected apology made headlines. However, amid the buzz, Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio claimed that the fan was planted and that CM Punk’s apology was planned in advance.
“That, by the way, was planted, whatever. It’s really interesting how they… Whatever it was, obviously somebody wanted him to apologize, and he did, because he’s not exactly the apologetic type for one thing, and if you’re going to apologize, I don’t know if this is the thing you apologize for given his political viewpoints and everything, but it’s money, and it’s wrestling, and you don’t expect wrestlers to have morals.” [H/T: ITR Wrestling]
Furthermore, Meltzer added that WWE usually protects CM Punk, but for this incident, they didn’t. Instead, they ran a segment that made him look bad and pushed him to apologize.
Did WWE plant a fan to set up CM Punk’s apology?
Meltzer claimed that WWE planned the entire CM Punk apology segment in Saudi Arabia. However, a conflicting report suggests that might not be the case. A report from Fightful Select revealed that WWE staff had not heard anything suggesting the fan was a plant.
Despite conflicting reports emerging about CM Punk’s apology incident, his efforts were praised by Triple H on the WWE Night of Champions post show. “I was privileged to watch him grow as a human being, to step out here and apologize to the people of Saudi Arabia, to just cherish where he is at in life and his career and the things he gets to do and the opportunities that he has. I was incredibly proud of him.”
