10 Wrestling Matches With Backstories You’ll NEVER Believe
5. CM Punk Vs. Samoa Joe
When: AEW All In 2023
What Happened: Tony Khan would've been forgiven for a having a meltdown backstage right before AEW's biggest show ever. Jack Perry had directed a childish dig at CM Punk during the pre-show (“Real glass! Cry me a river!”), and that led to a feisty brawl behind the curtain right before All In 2023 went live on pay-per-view.
Yikes.
Samoa Joe, who was preparing himself to wrestle in front of a mammoth Wembley Stadium crowd, had to step in and play peacemaker. Then, very quickly, both he and Punk had to re-focus on opening All Elite's biggest card with a bang. Allegedly, Punk could be heard yelling that he hated being in AEW too.
So, CM Punk went from scrapping backstage with Jungle Boy for real to working a near-15 minute bruiser vs. Joe in-ring. He'd be canned by the promotion shortly afterwards, surely because Tony was sick of all the drama.
If only fans had been able to glimpse behind that curtain.