Jack Perry Opens Up About 2023 AEW Suspension Following Incident With CM Punk

The last couple of years of Jack Perry's pro wrestling career have been a bit tumultuous, to say the least, but he says he wouldn't change a thing about that time in his life.

The former TNT Champion was the special guest this week on 'AEW Close Up with Renee Paquette', and the two wasted little time in diving into his 2023 suspension from the company.

Perry spent nearly six months on the sidelines after a very public falling out with CM Punk at All In London. The two had a heated disagreement over the use of real glass during one of Perry's matches, and it led to a shoot altercation backstage.

“I feel like I’ve grown a lot from it, but I feel like the growth came from a lot of, it sounds dramatic to say pain, but it wasn’t the nicest of times," Perry said without mentioning Punk or the incident directly.

"I think it really freed me in a lot of ways. Before all that feels like another lifetime at this point... I think back to how I felt before that and I think a big thing I had was like... it sounds silly, I just wanted everyone to like me.”

While Perry was suspended for his role in the fight, Punk was soon terminated from his AEW contract. The 'Best in the World' would later sign back with WWE, while Jungle Jack took the free time he had to figure out his own path forward.

JACK PERRY IS BACK!

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— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) September 20, 2025

“This was my dream job that I had been dreaming about since I was a kid, and I wanted to do it perfectly and I wanted everyone to like me," Perry said.

Paquette chimed in and said it can be a stressful situation trying to 'please everyone in the room', to which Perry responded by saying that it's not something he does in his day-to-day life.

"But this was different. I wanted to kind of micromanage it and make it perfect... So then when I would come up short of that, it was very disappointing. I think coming up short of anything sucks, but doing it in such a public way, and then there are a million people telling you you’re a piece of s--- or whatever, it’s hard.”

What has Jack Perry learned?

Perry would return to AEW at Dynasty 2024 under his new 'Scapegoat' persona and align himself with The Elite. He'd go on to capture the TNT Championship during his heel run, before taking an even longer hiatus ahead of his babyface turn at Full Gear 2025.

“Through all that, I finally realized there are some people who are never gonna like me no matter what I do, and in a way that was really freeing because then I was like I don’t have to worry about that anymore," Perry said. "The people who really matter to me, I think I'm good with. But, I don't know, a little controversy is fun too."

Jungle Jack said his time away from the ring forced him into the realization that being a professional wrestler is not the end-all, be-all for him. Even though wrestling is what he loves the most, he has other interests and goals, and he'd be okay if he had to walk away from the sport at some point.

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