Jack Perry couldn’t resist bringing a little CM Punk into his latest AEW promo—even if it meant recycling one of Punk’s most memorable WWE lines.
During the July 25 edition of AEW Collision, Perry was hyping his upcoming AEW Redemption title opportunity when he opened with a sentence that immediately sounded familiar.
“When an opportunity falls out of the sky, you take it.”
If that rang a bell, there’s a good reason why. Just months earlier on the Raw after WrestleMania 42, CM Punk delivered almost the exact same line while addressing Cody Rhodes.
“You never know when a championship opportunity falls out of the sky.”
The similarity was hard to miss, especially considering the history between Perry and Punk. What was supposed to be a straightforward promo about Perry chasing an AEW National Championship opportunity quickly became another reminder of the man whose backstage fight changed both of their careers.
Ironically, Perry only recently admitted that the fallout from that infamous AEW All In altercation ultimately made him a better performer. Speaking on Talk Is Jericho, Perry said the backlash from fans was brutal at first, but eventually stopped him from worrying about pleasing everyone.
“During the time, it was not nice. It was uncomfortable and scary. A huge portion of the wrestling world turned on me…”
That experience eventually led to the creation of his Scapegoat character—a nickname Perry revealed actually came from Chris Jericho during the controversy.
“You said, ‘Yeah, you’re the scapegoat.’ As soon as I saw the word, I was like, ‘That’s interesting.'”
Now, just weeks after opening up about how the Punk ordeal reshaped his career, Perry has everyone talking about Punk again—this time by delivering a promo that sounded an awful lot like one of Punk’s biggest WWE moments.
Whether it was a deliberate callback, a tongue-in-cheek jab or simply Perry borrowing a line that stuck with him, the connection was something that couldn’t be ignored.
Do you think Jack Perry intentionally ripped off CM Punk’s promo, or are fans reading too much into the similar wording? Let us know in the comments below.
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