AEW star Jack Perry has experienced a turbulent journey since his highly publicized backstage incident with CM Punk in 2023.
The altercation between Punk and Perry took place backstage at AEW All In, which ultimately led to Punk’s firing from the company. Perry was ultimately suspended and disappeared from AEW television for six months.
During that time, he reinvented himself as the Scapegoat while competing in NJPW. He later returned to AEW in 2024 as part of The Elite. Perry then stepped away again following AEW Full Gear, missing another nine months before returning at AEW All Out, where he reunited with his former tag team partner, Luchasaurus.
Speaking on Up Close with Renee Paquette, Perry was asked how much he feels he has grown over the last two years. While he did not mention CM Punk by name, he said, “I think, 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, for most of that time. I think it really freed me in a lot of ways.”
“It’s kind of like before all that feels like another lifetime at this point, and I think back to how I felt before that, and I think a big thing I had was like, I just really, it sounds silly, I just wanted everyone to like me.”
“I was new to being on TV. This was my dream job since I was a little kid, and I wanted to do it perfectly, and I wanted everyone to like me, and it’s not something I worry about so much in my real life, but this was different. I kind of wanted to micromanage it and make it perfect.”
AEW star Jack Perry says fans criticism helped change his mindset
Jack Perry also spoke about how difficult it was to fail publicly in front of millions of fans. “So then when I would come up short of that, it was very disappointing, and 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 sh*t or whatever, it’s hard.”
He added, “I think, through all that, I finally realised there are some people that 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, what do I wanna do?” [H/T: f4wonline.com]
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