In 2020, The Miz took a shot at CM Punk on WWE Backstage while Punk was not on good terms with WWE. The controversy led to Punk telling Miz to “suck a blood money covered d*ck” in Saudi Arabia, at a time when WWE’s relationship with the kingdom was still in its early stages.
Earlier this year, CM Punk publicly apologized for his comments ahead of his Undisputed WWE Championship match against John Cena at Night of Champions in Saudi Arabia.
Speaking on “What Do You Wanna Talk About?” with Cody Rhodes, John Cena called Punk’s apology in Saudi Arabia his favorite moment in wrestling and explained why it resonated with him so deeply.
“I can’t get past, Phil Brooks, CM Punk, Saudi Arabia, I think that might be my favorite moment in wrestling. The pre-show. I was lucky enough to have a promo with him that night, then a match, so I’m attaching myself to that moment, because I think it’s one of the best moments in wrestling.
You had someone who, in a moment of frustration and reaction said some pretty hateful things about a culture, then you have that culture being like ‘f**k you, come at us.’
Then you have a man who is brave enough to walk into the Lion’s den, and for young performers, old performers, please watch that pre-show, it fell under everybody’s radar, I was bawling my eyes out saying ‘this is the best thing ever.’
Phil goes out there, I wanna say Phil because it’s his development as a man. Front row there is a dude to hold him accountable, and I’m huge on accountability, and in the right moment Phil was accountable for what he said, he gave a good explanation for the why, and what can we do after that? ‘I’m sorry,’ and then you leave it, that’s all you can do.
Forgiveness takes time, and when someone’s ready to forgive they’ll mend that face, that gentleman forgave him right there and the forgiveness was infectious. So what I see is like, holy sh*t wrestling just brought cultures together. Wrestling brought people with different ideologies together in an embrace and excitement.
Phil went on that pre-show at 5 PM, we did a promo at like 8:30. He went from being the most hated person, to saying sorry to one guy and being forgiven, and then the whole pre-show forgiving him, and then went out in front of 31,000 people and they forgave him.
I don’t know if there’s a better moment than that, I don’t know if there’s a better moment of what we can accomplish in here of ‘f**ked up, this is why I did it, this is what was going through my mind, I’m so sorry, I hope you can find it in your heart to move on.’
I love growth, I love accountability, I’m an advocate for love and forgiveness, and that hit me in every right place, and that wasn’t even a match, it was a segment on a pre-show.”
