Rear Main Seal orientation

Is the consensus that I will have to at least release the tension on some of the main caps to get the seal half from the motor out ?

I tried a punch and a hammer and it's not budging..I don't want to risk crank damage.

Or am I gonna be removing the whole crank from the block. ( prefer not to )

When I removed the half from the cap, it seems there was some sort of adhesive used on the backside, so I presume that it was used on the block side as well/