CM Punk Accused Of Backstage Politics, AEW World Title Screwjob!
Another day, another salacious CM Punk/AEW story emerges...
In a claim that should probably be taken with several pinches of salt, for a multitude of reasons, CM Punk has been accused of politicking 'Hangman' Adam Page out of the AEW World Championship last year.
The Wrestling Observer/Figure Four Online's Ryan Frederick has claimed as much on a Discord server. Frederick alleged that Page was originally set to defeat Punk at Double Or Nothing 2022 (29 May), where Punk unseated 'Hangman' as AEW World Champion, though the 44-year-old moved to change this after falling out with Page in the wake of the infamous "worker's rights" promo.
Once the relationship soured, AEW booker and founder Tony Khan travelled to Punk's house in Los Angeles, changing a whole summer's worth of booking. 'Hangman' was removed from the mix as Punk wasn't going to work with him.
Said Frederick (via Reddit):-
Hangman was going to beat Punk at DoN until the worker's rights promo, Punk got it changed and Tony literally sat on the porch of Punk's house in LA booking out the summer with Hangman not anywhere close to being in the mix because Punk wasn't going to work with him. No way they were going back to him at any point.
The aforementioned "worker's rights" promo effectively kickstarted Punk's exit from AEW. Punk has alleged that 'Hangman' went into business for himself during their feud, leading to bad blood between the two. This was later referenced when Punk blew up at AEW's post-All Out press scrum in September, brawling with The Elite afterwards, leading to the involved parties being served indefinite suspensions.
Punk remains on ice, though Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks have returned to AEW.
Frederick reported post-All Out that the Bucks had reached out to WWE to gauge the company's interest in them, though this was quickly dismissed by Dave Meltzer.