Will CM Punk apologize to the fan for knocking his phone out of his hands when he filmed AJ Lee and Bayley hugging in the hotel lobby?

The fan who had his phone knocked out of his hands by C.M. Punk for recording his wife A.J. Lee and Bayley hugging goodbye in the hotel lobby on Monday morning wants an apology.

The fan initially apologized to Punk in person seconds after Punk forcefully knocked his phone out of his hands to the ground. Now he says he won’t press criminal charges or sue, but would like an apology. (TMZ has the footage HERE.)

“I want an apology – shake my hand,” he told TMZ. “I’m not gonna sue him or put him jail. I just want an apology.”

Bayley saw A.J. Lee in the hotel lobby where many fans were lingering and at least one other person had their phone camera pointed at them. Bayley and Lee hugged and then walked a few steps away from the gathering of fans toward the elevator lobby area. This fan walked toward them and said, “We love you, Bayley.” Bayley told him, “Go away dude, get out of here.” The man then took a step or two back at which point Punk forcefully whacked the phone out of his hands. The fan said, “Sorry, man. Sorry Punk. Sorry Punk.” Punk and Lee then turned and walked through a doorway to a more private area of the hotel just past the elevators.

TMZ characters this as Punk “dodging a bullet” and “a big break for Punk” because celebrities have been arrested for similar situations, noting Conor McGregor faced legal ramifications after smashing a fan’s phone outside of a Miami nightclub. In that instance, McGregor slapped the phone out of the fan’s hands and stomped on his phone on the pavement afterward.

PWTorch reached out to several current and former WWE wrestlers, both female and male, and there has been a theme to their response to the incident.

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One, they themselves have felt in recent years that fans have become more entitled to being in their space, especially in public places. Second, in this case Punk was standing up for his wife, so even though he wasn’t being filmed, he saw himself reacting to a loved one having her space encroached upon, in his view. Third, they wish WWE has offered more security for wrestlers all weekend.

That said, Punk has a history and several wrestlers who know Punk and are also aware of his history point out that he has a tendency to often “be in the right,” but end up “overreacting” in a way that removes some sympathy for his situation and calls into question his judgement in terms of scale of response.

“I think he could have definitely handled it better,” said one female wrestler, noting that he’s a public figure.

The fan wasn’t being aggressive or rude in tone, but instead just didn’t have the social tact to keep a greater distance, especially after Bayley and Lee took several steps away from the gathering of fans. He was the only one, it appears, who followed them those few steps when they moved.

After the phone was knocked out of his hands by Punk, the fan didn’t escalate the situation and immediately walked away and apologized in a tone that wasn’t sarcastic, but sounded sincere. There could be more context that Bayley, Lee, and Punk are aware of that hasn’t been reported regarding this fan repeatedly pushing boundaries, but that has not been reported.

One retired WWE wrestler told PWTorch today that he was “stalked in a bathroom” and has faced rude fans before and is sympathetic to Punk. Booker T said on a podcast this week he had a wrestler follow him into a bathroom this weekend.

Another retired WWE wrestler tells PWTorch that he’s done making excuses for fans. “If a fan is clearly in the wrong, I’m done saying, ‘Well, a wrestler could have handled it better.'”

One current WWE wrestler tells PWTorch this weekend “there was no security protecting us,” but added it’s on every public figure to be careful how they treat people even if they believe they are getting too close. One ex-WWE wrestler said that WWE “needs to do better with proper security… to avoid all this crap.” He suggested a private entrance away from fans.

On today’s Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast “Tuesday Flagship” (recorded today, released later tonight), Zack Heydorn from Sports Illustrated was in Las Vegas all weekend for WrestleMania and said it was apparent to him that more security supplied by WWE at the hotels where wrestlers were staying would have been helpful.

Hotel lobbies are considered semi-public places, even if they are private property, and there isn’t a reasonable expectation for the privacy that otherwise would be assumed at, say, a restaurant in the dining area for public figures. Fans for decades have gathered at hotel lobbies to greet wrestlers, ask for autographs and photos, and record them. It’s not often at all that incidents occur where a fan is physically assaulted, but rather usually wrestlers walked away or talk to the fans. Punk escalated a situation that had already dissipated in the sense that the fan did step back when Bayley asked him to go away and reached out and pushed his camera down.

Will Punk apologize? What if he doesn’t? Or will the fan just let it go?

Check out our lengthy discussion on this topic on last night’s Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Post-show (beginning at the 53:24 mark HERE: