This upcoming Saturday at WWE Wrestlepalooza, CM Punk and his wife AJ Lee will enter battle with Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch in a Mixed Tag Team Match for the promotion’s first ever premium live event to steam live on ESPN. Although Punk is set to partner with Lee for the first time in his career, he’ll be missing the music festival Riot Fest in his hometown of Chicago, Illinois due to his commitments with WWE this weekend, as he explained on “Pardon My Take” that he will be present at both Wrestlepalooza and “WWE SmackDown” this week, but will not make an on-screen appearance for the blue brand.
“I will be in Indianapolis on Friday. You know, I’ll be around at SmackDown. I won’t be on screen, but I do things backstage. I help out. I can’t go to Riot Fest anyway because of legal reasons … It’s probably best I stop talking about it.”
Over the years, Punk has sneaked into Riot Fest on several occasions, whether it’s just to listen to the music or meet with his friend and lead singer of Rancid, Lars Frederiksen. However, Punk was eventually banned from Riot Fest, leading him to publicly slam music festival on social media on a yearly basis. Despite many fans believing there was real tension between Riot Fest and Punk, it’s been revealed that both sides engage in a fake feud every year, as the “Best In The World” continues to pretend that he hates the event, while the festival has “CM Punk” listed as a banned item on their website.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “Pardon My Take” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
