Renee Paquette’s own podcast seems to be finished or on hiatus, but she still hosts AEW’s YouTube interview show, Up Close.
This week, the guest on Up Close had the potential to drop some bombs about the most
dramatic, controversial chapter in AEW history. Jack Perry wasn’t involved in 2022’s “Brawl Out” locker room fight between CM Punk and The Elite, but the former Jungle Boy’s issues with Punk after his return led to more behind-the-scenes issues, and eventually a dust-up at Wembley Stadium in August 2023. That resulted in Punk’s firing, Perry’s suspension, Punk’s return to WWE, and Jungle Jack’s reinvention as “The Scapegoat”.
It was a topic that lingered over the interview without Punk’s name ever coming up. They did speak to it right at the top, without making any specific mention of events during AEW’s formative years.
Paquette: The last couple years have been pretty interesting… How would you say they’ve kind of shaped you and changed you with some of the things that have gone on with having downtime, time to yourself, being away from the rest and not really sure what the future’s going to hold? What was that like?
Perry: 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… 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 shit or whatever, it’s hard.
I think, through all that, I finally realized 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?
Whatever went on between Punk and Perry, it’s hard to quibble with that response — especially for those of us in the “just move on” camp. We’ll see what kind of reactions folks have though. You can watch Paquette and Perry’s entire conversation here.
