WWE: Reason for CM Punk’s Abscense From 12/8 WWE RAW Show, John Cena Apologized for “Going Into Business For Himself” at Crown Jewel Perth, The Rock on His Golden Globes Nomination for “The Smashing Machine”

Backstage Update on Reason for CM Punk’s Abscense From 12/8 WWE RAW Show

Monday’s WWE RAW show in Kansas City, Missouri featured a show closing promo segment from Paul Heyman and Bron Breakker talking about Breakker’s upcoming match against CM Punk for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at the January 5, 2026 RAW show. Monday’s show was also notable for Punk being noticeably absent throughout the entire show.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that the reason for Punk’s abscense was due to him still filming for the upcoming new film The Bodyguard in Canada for Netflix.

Johnson reported that Punk was always scheduled to miss the first two RAW shows of this month due to his current filming commitments.

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John Cena Apologized for “Going Into Business For Himself” at WWE Crown Jewel Perth

This past October’s WWE Crown Jewel: Perth event in Perth, Western Australia, Australia featured John Cena defeating AJ Styles in a singles match for his 100th WWE PLE victory in his WWE career. This match was notable for featuring a special ring introduction for Styles that was written by Cena.

A recent episode of the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast featured Cena as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Cena’s thoughts about his special ring introduction he wrote for Styles and regretting the way he went about it by not telling ring announcer Alicia Taylor ahead of time.

“I just wanted to do something nice for my guy. I didn’t even show Alicia until I handed her the paper. You don’t get those moments unless you get the sh*t beat up. I wanted to do something special. I went about it the wrong way. I went into business for myself. I should have gotten permission to do that, and I would have gotten permission to do that, but I told no one about it, because I wanted to do something special, and in doing so, the people running the show felt surprised, and that’s not a position I ever want to put them in because they award me such creative liberty.”

Cena also gave his thoughts about how he had apologized to Styles after the match over him “going into the business for himself” over their pre-match moment.

“We’re all trying to make these moments special, and we’re all on the same team, and it shouldn’t be me doing something outside that realm. If I tell my teammates, hey, let’s do it. I can keep it from AJ, I can keep it from Alicia, but if I tell my teammates who are crafting this show, maybe they make it look better. The first thing I did was thank AJ, the second thing I did was pull a few creative individuals aside and say, ‘I’m sorry. That will never happen again. I know where I fucked up. I’m so sorry, and I went into business for myself. That’s not me. I hope you look at my body of work, and all the times I’ve asked for permission, and this is the one time I ask for forgiveness.’ It got the best of me, but I wanted to do something nice for AJ.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

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The Rock Comments on His Golden Globes Nomination for “The Smashing Machine”

The Golden Globes recently released their official full list of nominees for the awards of next year’s Golden Globes Awards show. Among those nominated for awards included Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson who was nominated for Best Performance by a Male Actor (Drama) for his portryal of Mark Kerr in The Smashing Machine biopic.

In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Johnson gave his thoughts about him receiving his first ever Golden Globes nomination in his acting career.

“A few things. One of them is the importance of listening to the little voice that sits behind your rib cage, that at times whispers to you, and at times pounds on your chest to say that you can do more, and there is more, and it can be scary, and it might be scary because it will require you to step out of a comfort zone, and when things are good, you don’t want to step out of that zone, because it’s going good.

But there was more: I wanted to really push and challenge myself and chase that challenge. I had something very special to me, which was the story. It’s been a long go with The Smashing Machine: seven years ago is when I first met Benny [Safdie] about this. So it’s been over half a decade to get this going and so, it represents believing in and listening to that little voice, and also doing the work, even when it’s scary, and surrounding yourself with like-minded people who are chasing the challenge as well. That would be Benny, Emily and Kazu [Hiro], who helped with this transformation every day.

On top of that, I think the nomination represents the fight in everybody, especially with addictions and those demons that you battle. Mark Kerr had it all and lost everything, and then has since become sober. He did overdose twice. Life is good because he’s sober and because he made it. Not everyone is that lucky. That’s the movie that we wanted to make: a nod to those who fight.

But last week, I thought, “Let me take a tally here.” Over the last years, I’ve lost 15 friends who are all wrestlers and fighters to addiction. Some OD’d, some decided to check out. Life was too hard. It shook me, and then it restabilized me in a way like, “Okay, I’m so happy we made this film.” It is a love letter to those that I just talked to you about. That’s why this nomination means so much.”