Truth Behind CM Punk Nearly Quitting AEW Dynamite

Tony Khan reportedly met with CM Punk backstage before his controversial appearance on this week's AEW Dynamite.

The Best in the World has found himself occupying many a headline on the back of apparently going into business for himself during the show-opening promo segment that saw the AEW World Champion call out "Hangman" Adam Page for an impromptu rematch.

And with it also being noted by AEW sources that there is some legitimate beef shared between Punk and Page right now, an update from PWTorch.com's Wade Keller has shed further light on the ever-evolving situation.

According to the folks Keller spoke to within the company, it's felt that Tony Khan and the promotion in general aren't beyond attempting to pull off another worked-shoot angle based on the real-life heat (via WrestlingHeadlines.com):

“Somebody I talked to today [said] that the wrestlers in general do not feel like it is beyond Tony Khan and others to do another worked-shoot type thing. And he just said [that] he didn’t think that was the case here. But he said just keep that in the back of your mind that even if there is a beef, they might think, ‘hey, let’s amplify this. Let’s turn this into a thing.’ And so he was sort of like, let’s see how things play out once we understand why the Punk-Moxley match was put on early, and all that. Let’s see how this plays out because it might turn out like yeah, there was something there but then they extended and amplified it beyond the point of resolution because they thought it would be believable and create a buzz.”

On top of this, Keller also reported how Khan met with his prized champ before the latest edition of Dynamite and "spent a decent amount of time with him one on one":

"I can report that Tony Khan went into Punk’s locker room and spent a decent amount of time with him one on one [Wednesday] afternoon. I can also report that Punk did not seem agitated or distracted or not his usual self right before Dynamite started. It didn’t seem like anything was on his mind or that it was a stressful day or anything like that. He was totally going through the normal motions. So there’s just a couple contextual things there."

That being said, it was also reported in the most recent edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that there is “a ton of backstage drama” involving many of the promotion's top talents at this current moment in time.

So it remains to be seen how the AEW President will handle what appears to be a rather sensitive locker room situation in the coming weeks, and whether the real-life drama will be addressed on Dynamite and Rampage in the lead-up to All Out 2022.