The Self-Destruction Of CM Punk In AEW | Wrestling Timelines
August 17, 2022 - Coward Sh*t
Punk opens Dynamite. Everybody in the arena expects him to talk about Jon Moxley. The expected, logical thing is for Punk to accuse Mox of being a paper champion and vow to become undisputed at the All Out PPV.
Instead, after a brief bit of pandering to the crowd, he launches into what feels like an unprovoked, out-of-nowhere attack on Hangman Page. Even when he’s being unprofessional, he’s still, to an extent, doing business. He says he has some “important and not so important” things to address. Page is “not so important”; his All Out opponent is.
“Hangman Adam Page,” he says, firing off the three words that hit the fan. Punk, drawing from the example of Shawn Michaels, offers Page a rematch then and there, which he knows cannot happen, because wrestling is predetermined and the match is not booked. “That’s coward sh*t,” Punk says.
“The apology must be as loud and as public as the disrespect,” Punk continues, before moving on, in one of many iconic lines that surround the saga. It really doesn’t help AEW’s perception that the man who will become its arch-nemesis is such a monumentally charismatic and quotable superstar. His best and most scathing material enters the pro wrestling fan lexicon. It becomes impossible to get away from him. AEW becomes haunted by him.
The media is about to get inundated with one of the biggest stories of the decade, but even after this promo, AEW’s brand value is so strong that many people’s first thought is “Well, they’re doing a three-way match at All Out”.
Punk here distributes his receipt. He loses the moral high ground, but can always say that he was acting in self-defence.
Was Punk right to do it? Here’s where the loop starts, and never ends. Was Page right to go after him first?
Nobody knows if CM Punk directly asked Tony Khan not to renew Colt Cabana’s contract. Nobody knows if Punk told Tony Khan that he would prefer it if Colt Cabana was out of the picture, and if Khan then approved his wish. Nobody knows if Khan simply presumed that was the case, and made his decision accordingly. Nobody knows if Khan wanted to release the guy of his own volition. Nobody knows if Cabana’s circle ran away with a narrative informed by coincidence.
Hypothetically, say CM Punk was in some way responsible for Colt Cabana losing his job. That would be a terrible thing to do, obviously. There is no defending it. But is addressing it through the veil of a fictional promo, as Page did, blindsiding Punk in the process, the best response?
Page could have walked up to Punk backstage and asked him to his face. Punk by his own admission likes to deal with things in that exact manner. Page could have called a meeting between himself, Punk, and Khan, if he wanted to thrash things out in a more formal setting.
Punk would later disclose to Ariel Helwani, not that it wasn’t immediately obvious at the time, that he was thrown back in May. Nothing he had planned to say would have made sense as a response. Clearly bemused, Punk said that he really didn’t know what Page’s problem was. The audience didn’t know, either.
Double Or Nothing ‘22 was an extraordinary success for AEW. At the time, with $1.15 million generated in ticket sales, it was the largest non-WWE gate in U.S. history. PPV buys (165,000), however, are down 10,000 from Revolution (175,000). The number is both very strong and a slight disappointment; a living legend at the height of his powers gunning for a World title should be a bigger draw, no?
The story as planned is nowhere near as strong as CM Punk Vs. MJF - all-babyface programmes are trickier - but does the buy number improve, if Page tells the agreed-upon story without confusing the audience?
Did Page in fact jeopardise AEW’s success, albeit to a not hugely significant extent?