10 Insane Lengths Wrestlers Went To Get Revenge For Real
3. Brawl Out
CM Punk felt aggrieved, heavily, throughout 2022.
He was incandescent with rage at Hangman Page for daring to suggest that he was a hypocrite for espousing worker's rights on Twitter. In parallel, rumours swirled that he was responsible for the vanishing of Colt Cabana: the only ROH talent who never appeared on Rampage. Which the Page promo, laden as it was with subtext, seemed to reinforce.
The true story has yet to emerge - we'll never know why Colt was never pinned on Elevation to dispel the gossip - but Punk was adamant that he had "f*ck all" to do with it in the infamous 'Brawl Out' press conference. Dave Meltzer later moved to suggest that this wasn't the case, and that a certain story was true "from the start", but whether he was operating in good faith or with bizarre hypocrisy, Punk dwelled in his foul mood as he lay on the shelf having "pulverised" several bones in his foot.
Did he draft an incendiary revenge plan during his time away?
He certainly volunteered his side of the story from out of nowhere at the presser. He even bemoaned the fact that Nick Hausman "blew up" his spot, which was, in effect, Punk saying that he couldn't cut the promo he had scripted beforehand.
In revenge for being cast as the heel, in his mind, by the Elite playing some Lord Baelish game, Punk via a predetermined (and incredible) promo buried the systemic workings of the company, and its top stars, and ensured that every worker who took a bump at All Out did so in vain. Only the Acclaimed's match lingered in the memory.
He wasn't exactly standing with his co-workers there.