The Self-Destruction Of CM Punk In AEW | Wrestling Timelines
January 20, 2023 - Iced
CM Punk, per the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, has been “put on ice” by Tony Khan. Talk of him being released has quietened down, but no creative plans have been pitched to him, either.
He is in stasis.
March 23, 2023 - Rocky III
More sh*t hits the fan when the Rocky discourse happens.
With AEW pumping out often very good but not exactly zeitgeist-defining stuff against a resurgent WWE, the conversation, circular though it is, often turns to Brawl Out and the status of CM Punk. It’s simply too incredible a tale to ignore.
Meltzer, back on the board, writes about what he knows about the Punk Vs. Mox programme, which was criticised when the PPV return match was only advertised very closely to the date of All Out itself. Dave reckons that Punk had agreed to the creative plan before writing a legal letter to AEW claiming he “wasn’t down for it”. Only when Tony “put his foot down” did the series come together.
Punk, who put his own foot down at Quake By The Lake, refutes the claim in a very quickly deleted Instagram story. Punk says he wasn’t cleared to return for the squash, that Mox refused to lose to him 1-0, and that he thought his “Rocky three idea” “sucked”.
“Dave Meltzer is a liar. Chris Jericho is a liar and a stooge,” Punk concludes. About the only conclusion one can draw from this is that Punk believes Jericho fed Dave the story - but, as ever, this is only inference.
Wrestlers often dislike one another behind the scenes. It’s a workplace. It happens everywhere. At this point, CM Punk is feuding with countless people all at once and, as will be revealed, there are yet more. Punk is very agitated, and wants out. He will lash out in the months to come. He’s running into a lot of a**holes of late, as the saying goes.
Mox is spurred into a rare public comment, claiming on wife Renee Paquette’s podcast that if anything, as somebody who wasn’t under AEW contract at the time, he was bending over backwards to ultimately put Punk over.