On Saturday, CM Punk will wrestle his first match in Saudi Arabia.
And on the eve of his highly anticipated WWE Undisputed Championship match against John Cena, the “Voice of the Voiceless” did his best to make amends with the event’s host country.
Despite being the babyface in his feud with Cena, Punk was met with noticeable backlash at the Night of Champions kickoff event in Riyadh on Friday. Punk’s cold reception, however, wasn’t without reason. In 2020 — nearly four years before his return to WWE — the Chicago native famously told WWE superstar The Miz to “go suck a blood money covered d**k in Saudi Arabia” in a social media post.
Rather than ignoring the elephant in the room on Friday, CM Punk took it head on. And not only did he apologize for the post, but he also insisted that it wasn’t intended to be a criticism of Saudi Arabia, which has possessed a relationship with WWE since 2018.
“This guy wants me to apologize for a mean tweet I wrote six years ago,” Punk said, singling out a fan in the audience. “Hey, listen, it legitimately had nothing to do with Saudi Arabia. I woke up and I was crabby and I wrote a mean tweet to The Miz. And I apologized to The Miz. And sir, what’s your name? Mohammed? Mohammed, I sincerely apologize to you and all of Saudi Arabia.”
The 46-year-old added: “I am not perfect by any means. Sometimes as human beings, we screw up. The beautiful thing is everything is a lesson learned. And now here I am and you have invited me to your country and I am grateful to be here. Thank you very much.”
While Punk did his best to downplay the situation, his past remarks have played a key role in his current feud with Cena. In recent weeks, the WWE Undisputed Champion has positioned Punk as a “hypocrite” for accepting his challenge to face him in Saudi Arabia and even referenced the infamous social media post during last week’s episode of WWE SmackDown.
“You change your values as much as I change my t-shirts,” Cena said during a promo, later adding, “Your tweets are strong. Your actions are weak.”
Despite Punk initially being reluctant to accept Cena’s challenge, he now appears to be making a concerted effort to embrace Saudi Arabia. But while the crowd at the kickoff event seemed quick to accept his apology, it will be interesting to see if the audience at Night of Champions follows suit and what that will ultimately mean for the match itself.