That time CM Punk smacked a possibly innocent fan in the crowd at Monday Night Raw

https://youtu.be/-sAWt_LtiS0

CM Punk has transitioned from professional wrestling to training in mixed martial arts and even got his shot for his first professional MMA fight in the UFC.

It was not the performance that CM Punk was looking to put on against Mickey Gall at UFC 203. However, the former WWE superstar went into the Octagon and put it all on the line.

Here, we take a look back at an incident involving CM Punk and what looks to be an innocent fan in the stands as the professional wrestling star was in the crowd as part of the October 8, 2012, Monday Night Raw show.

Following his brawl with Vince McMahon, CM Punk, who had the role of the villain, ran into the crowd where he was heckled by fans. You can see CM Punk being pushed and hit in the video where he is obviously irritated. Then, as CM Punk is hit and gets his head shoved by a man wearing a white shirt, CM Punk throws a whipping backhand at a fan that didn’t look to be touching CM Punk from the video shot. CM Punk followed up with pushing the same fan’s face as the fan fell to the ground.

CM Punk later released the following statement to WWE (h/t bleacher report) regarding the incident:

“I think the whole situation sucks. It’s an unfortunate and isolated incident. I was up in the stands, surrounded. Somebody said, ‘let’s push him down the stairs.’ I got hit in the ribs three times. I was getting shoved and I was getting punched…Then I started getting tagged in the back of the head. Unfortunately, I lashed out in the heat of the moment and I apologize. I’m really just glad nobody was hurt.”

In the following CBS13 news report interviewing Charles Schmidt, the fan who was hit by CM Punk, claimed his innocence and filed a police report after the incident but did not want to press charges.

This article first appeared on 1/18/2017.