CM Punk has broken his silence on the AEW All Out backstage fight. Ahead of his imminent return on AEW Collision, Punk gave a detailed interview about his recovery process over the past nine months, both from a physical and reparational standpoint. Punk gave brief comments on the situation surrounding the bad blood between himself and The Elite, confirming that the issues began after “Hangman” Adam Page’s infamous “worker’s rights” line during a live AEW Dynamite promo. Punk alleged that Hangman’s off-script antics did not stop at the promo, as he said Hangman worked stiff against him during their AEW Double or Nothing match in May 2022.
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“I proceed to have what I think is a garbage match because I’m trying to protect myself on stuff instead of actually just working and trying to put on the best performance I can,” Punk said. “I’m keeping an eye out. He chopped me in the mouth one time, and I’m just like, ‘Okay, did you do that on purpose?’ You chip my tooth, and I’m like, ‘Alright, should I give him a receipt?’ It changes the dynamic. It poisoned everything for me, and it made it all really, really ugly, and that was what set all of this off, and here we are over a year later and ain’t s–t been done about it.”
Hangman’s real-life friend and on-screen stablemate Nick Jackson has seemingly responded to Punk’s comments. Taking to Instagram, Nick shared an image of Hangman landing a shooting star press during this past Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite.
“Not only is he good at wrestling but he’s an even better human being,” Nick captioned the Instagram Story.
This is not the first time that AEW talent have cheekily responded to controversial Punk comments on social media. Earlier this year, Punk went off on Jon Moxley and Chris Jericho on his Instagram, blasting the latter for being a “liar and a stooge.” Shortly after Punk took down his post, Jericho storied an image of Matt Hardy shouting “Delete!”
Regardless of these latest tensions, Punk is still scheduled to make his AEW return on the debut episode of AEW Collision, teaming with AEW World Tag Team Champions FTR to face off against Ring of Honor Television Champion Samoa Joe and Bullet Club Gold’s Jay White and Juice Robinson.
AEW Collision premieres this Saturday, June 17th at 8 PM ET on TNT.
