CM Punk has explained his political comments.
The Straight Edge Star recently appeared on All The Smoke podcast. The in-depth interview saw the WWE World Heavyweight Champion speaking on topics such as Pat McAfee getting involved in WrestleMania, his iconic pipe bomb, retirement plans and more.
During the talk, CM Punk was also asked about being outspoken about social issues and why is that important to him. The wrestling veteran explained that he sees it as speaking for human rights rather than a political stand and mentioned that it's always the right time to do the right thing:
Because it's always the right time to do the right thing. I think...my perspective on it now is I understand, like if you're watching a wrestling show and you just want to see some people clobbering each other. You just want to see some Shakespeare drama. That maybe you don't want to get hit over the head with the real-world things of who's a Republican, who's a Democrat, like all these political things.
But to me especially now, today, in 2026, the world is such an ugly place. I understand there being an escape, but also like when am I supposed to talk about this stuff? Because I do feel very strongly about things. And I tend to lean more towards 'no, I'm not being political, this is human rights.'
We're Going Backwards: CM Punk
CM Punk also spoke about the current political climate in the United States. The former AEW star claimed that US is going backwards as a country by taking rights away from marginalized groups:
You just kind of grow up and you learn thing from history books, and then you learn that a lot of the things in history books aren't necessarily the way things went down. But certainly you either learn or you don't that there is a right and there is a wrong. Where we are as a country now, I feel like we're going backwards. We are.
We're talking about taking rights away from marginalized groups. I feel that we, as people, have never been represented by our government in the proper way. I think Obama was President for eight years, and I think the pendulum swung so far in the other direction that after a while, and now we're dealing with the repercussions of that.
The 47-year-old later said that he tries to avoid making political points on TV, but sometimes the subjects are too important to ignore. Punk admitted that he sometimes gets his opinions wrong but proclaimed that he believes in people and not governments.
