CM Punk addresses fans that create fake quotes on social media: “These are mentally ill people”
While appearing on Stephanie McMahon’s podcast, CM Punk responded to criticism over him defeating Sami Zayn for the WWE Championship. Punk said: “I won. I won the title. Clean. I beat that 41-year-old youngster fair and square in the middle of the ring. I’m guilty of doing what? What was it?”
Stephanie then brought up a graphic displaying what appeared to be legitimate posts from wrestlers on Twitter/X reacting to Punk’s win. The graphic included an alleged post from Seth Rollins that read, “Funny how easy it is to change your tune when the spotlight’s back on you.” Another alleged post from Becky Lynch stated, “He said it ruined wrestling. Said it over and over again. And here we are.”
Punk then responded to the posts…
“These are AI-generated. These are fake quotes. Seth did not tweet this. Becky did not tweet this. This is a double-edged sword about, I think, most people in our business, but especially me. I do not say this lightly. These are mentally ill people. I couldn’t imagine making up fake tweets that somebody else said. But I think the problem—and it’s not just in our business, I think it’s a societal thing—is people will instantly see that, and then they believe it.
I don’t know how to change people’s minds about that, which is why I lean into not caring about changing anybody’s mind about that. I’m in the business of toying with people’s emotions, so if somebody’s going to read that and they’re going to believe it, that helps me in a way, you know?
But there’s also Phil, who walks through parking lots with his wife and has his head on a swivel because those people are out there. It’s interesting.”