CM Punk Frustrated In AEW - Concerns He No-Showed This Week's Dynamite

All does not sound well between the Second City Saint and AEW right now.

Aug 19, 2022 August 19th, 2022

CM Punk was involved in quite the opening segment on AEW Dynamite this week.

While interim AEW World Champion Jon Moxley was the focus of a brilliant, vitriolic Punk promo during the opening segment of Dynamite, one other person who found their name on the Second City Saint's lips was 'Hangman' Adam Page as the Chicago native went off-script and reportedly into business for himself - calling out Page when he knew that Hangman could not come to the ring.

In an update on this, Fightful Select last night reported how Punk has "often verbally expressed his displeasure" about things during his AEW run, and there was one recent example of this that had some in All Elite Wrestling thinking that the Straight-Edge Superstar may "end up quitting the company".

While it's key to emphasise that Punk never said as much to anyone, some close to him thought that he might have decided to no-show this week's Dynamite due to his frustrations. These same people don't think that Punk would have quit over his current issues, but one veteran told Fightful that they've heard of "threats being levied".

Seemingly, there is some genuine beef between CM Punk and Adam Page, with Fightful adding how the current AEW World Champion met with company higher-ups earlier in the year due to his unhappiness with the context and content of some of Hangman's promo material during their rivalry. On this topic, Voices of Wrestling noted how they were flat-out told how Punk had informed some people in the promotion that he would not lose to Page.

Punk offering Page the chance to come to the ring for a World Title rematch this past Wednesday - in the knowledge that Hangman was in a lose-lose situation where he couldn't exactly barge past Tony Khan and confront Punker - was seen as a "receipt" by some in the locker room for a prior Hangman promo that loosely alluded to Punk's issues with Colt Cabana.

Fightful concluded this report by stating how there is no concrete word on why Punk is currently frustrated or why this situation had some thinking he may no-show Dynamite. Certainly, this is very much one to keep an eye on.

Andrew Pollard

Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.

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