The Self-Destruction Of CM Punk In AEW | Wrestling Timelines
January 27, 2014 - CM Punk Leaves WWE
CM Punk sensationally quits WWE under incredibly acrimonious circumstances.
On the day after Royal Rumble 2014, CM Punks lets Vince McMahon and Triple H have it. He’s hurt, he doesn’t believe he’s been looked after correctly, and he’s tired of being the guy who does jobs to the part-timers. He lost to the Rock (at Royal Rumble 2013), the Undertaker (WrestleMania 29) and Brock Lesnar (SummerSlam) in the same calendar year.
Punk isn’t stupid. He knows what this means for his career. He knows he’s talking to a brick wall, too. His mooted match against Triple H at WrestleMania 30 is a halfhearted attempt to keep him happy, but the pitch infuriates him. A win over Triple H might have helped him in 2011; three years later, it’s not even an equaliser. Punk, with his mental health spiralling and body broken in ways he can’t fathom, “splits”.
On a subsequent conference call, Vince McMahon frames this as a sabbatical. It isn’t. When WWE accepts that Punk cannot be persuaded to return, he is fired on the morning of his wedding to April ‘AJ Lee’ Mendez on June 13.
November 2014 - The Art Of Wrestling
The most infamous podcast in wrestling history drops. An episode of Colt Cabana’s ‘Art of Wrestling’, it is a conversation held between close friends Colt and CM Punk. It’s a wide-ranging chat that alters the fate and lives of both men forever.
Punk offers his side of the story. It is not remotely flattering to WWE. Punk claims that Vince McMahon used his famous powers of persuasion to get him to return early from injury, more than once, when his body wasn’t ready. He also accuses Ryback of being reckless. Most pertinently, Punk buries WWE’s medical staff and protocols. He claims the concussion test is worthless. He also claims that he was pressed, without explicit verbal instruction, to perform on a European tour and overlook a potential head injury. The word “Z-Pak” enters the wrestling lexicon when Punk alleges that he was told to take antibiotics to treat injured ribs and a (suspected, self-diagnosed) concussion.
CM Punk was also alarmed by a “thing on his back” that is “purple” and “the size of a baseball”. Punk bemoans that “Doc” (Dr. Chris Amann) refused to cut whatever it was out of his body because he was “lazy”. Punk reveals that when he finally got it seen to, by a doctor unaffiliated with WWE, he was told that it was a staph infection that could have killed him.
Punk’s comments drew a life-changing response: in February 2015, Amann files a defamation suit against both Punk and Cabana. The legal fees involved in the defence are eye-watering. In June 2018, the jury rules in favour of Punk and Cabana, but given the financial cost, the victory can be described as pyrrhic.
Punk and Cabana fall out, badly and publicly. Cabana in August sues Punk for failing to pay the allegedly promised legal fees, as evidenced by a purported text message reading they would be “100% covered”. Punk files a counterclaim, and will later reveal that he is in possession of a contradictory email in which Colt writes “you do not have to pay anymore”.
Both suits are dismissed in 2019. The friendship is over - but their paths will cross once more.