8 Times Wrestlers Refused To Work With Each Other
2. The Elite & CM Punk
CM Punk didn’t pull a single punch when he verbally eviscerated The Elite for transgressions he believed were worthy of bringing up in public at the All Out 2022 press conference. Fuelled by a lethal cocktail of total contempt and righteous self-belief, the then-AEW World Champion felt that he was politically protected enough to unleash his vitriol without reprisals, likely without significant consequences, and with the ardent belief it would quash his rising frustrations.
He was wrong about that, but within inadvertently iconic missive, he did throw out a challenge to anybody that chose to disagree with him. Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks obviously did, a real fight broke out, and the situation became rapidly untenable and ultimately futile. In the days, weeks and months that passed, Punk's references to "doing business" worked many into wanting everything to be settled in order for the two sides to go to war in the fiction. It was never on the cards.
In the aftermath, Kenny Omega had noted that he’d still have been content to work a match of some description, and to many fans, that specific singles bout remains one of the true dream contests still left between either of the American majors. But The Young Bucks weren't as professional. And should they have been? There’s something admirable about Matt and Nick Jackson's unwillingness to do business in particular. Men constantly criticised for “killing the business” instead did what they’d always done in not compromising their values to turn this particular strain of reality into monetisable fiction. Punk was gone in 2023, likely to never be back, and with The Elite never likely to leave for WWE, the door remains forbidden - and completely slammed shut.