CM Punk recently came under fire from several online fans when he went back on his stance against Saudi Arabia to not only compete at Night of Champions against John Cena, but also publicly apologize for an X-post he made years ago criticizing WWE's shows in the country and hitting back at The Miz.
However, not everyone disagrees with Punk, and in a recent episode of his "Grilling JR" podcast, Jim Ross came to the defense of the former AEW World Champion.
"It's overthought...Overthought, and I know that Punk's heart is in the right place," Ross noted. "He's controversial, that's why he's so fun to follow. Phil's a good friend of mine. I am a full-on supporter of his work, I really am; I still wish he was at AEW, quite frankly."
Ross further emphasized that the entire "controversy" is overthought and suggested that fans simply take it easy and move on from Punk's comments.
Elsewhere, Rob Van Dam also commented on the "hypocrisy" of Punk. According to the veteran in an episode of his "1 Of A Kind" podcast, he doesn't consider it hypocrisy unless the person went back on their word at the same time. VanDam urged that people can grow and change their perspective over time, and doesn't consider Punk a hypocrite for his apology. It remains to be seen if anything will come out of this beyond social media controversy, but during a report, Dave Meltzer interestingly suggested that WWE threw Punk under the bus, and while that may or may not be true, there definitely some storyline potential there.
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Grilling JR" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
