CM Punk's AEW Collision Loss Broke a Nine-Year-Old Streak
CM Punk hadn't lost back-to-back matches since his final month with WWE.
CM Puk was on the losing end of AEW Collision's main event for the second week in a row last night as he and Darby Allin lost a tag team match against Ricky Starks and Christian Cage. Starks won the bout for his team by countering Allin's attempt at a jackknife pin with a pinning counter of his own, holding the bottom rope for leverage to keep Allin down for a three count. This mirrored Starks' victory over Punk last week in the finals of the Owen Hart Cup tournament in which he grabbed the rope without the referee's knowledge to pull off the upset win.
The loss not only enraged Punk, but it made its way into the history books. It marked the first time since Punk's AEW arrival in 2021 that he had lost back-to-back matches and is the first time since 2014 that Punk has taken consecutive losses in any capacity. That year saw him lose a singles match to Roman Reigns on the Jan. 6 episode of Monday Night Raw. He then lost a six-man tag match against The Shield the following night on SmackDown.
Ricky Starks CHEATS once again to pick a win against Darby Allin and CM Punk. He is doubling down on his "secret sauce" for success.
— Just Alyx (@JustAlyxCentral) July 23, 2023
And he'll use all the fancy cars, pyro, pricy bags, & expensive shoes to hide his shame behind it.
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT! #AEWCollision pic.twitter.com/FpcIxCdWDI
AEW Dynamite Card (July 26, 2023)
- AEW International Championship: Orange Cassidy vs. AR Fox
- The Blackpool Combat Club (Jon Moxley & Claudio Castagnoli vs. The Lucha Brothers vs. The Best Friends
- Pac vs. Gravity
- Darby Allin vs. Swerve Strickland
- Dr. Britt Baker vs. Taya Valkyrie
- Promo from MJF & Adam Cole
AEW Collision Card (July 29, 2023)
- AEW World Tag Team Championships: FTR vs. MJF & Adam Cole
- Andrade El Idolo vs. Buddy Matthews (Ladder Match)
- El Hijo Del Vikingo, Action Andretti & Darius Martin vs. Bullet Club Gold (Juice Robinson & The Gunns)
CM Punk on the Brawl Out Incident
Punk's time in AEW has been mostly drama-free since returning to TV last month on AEW Collision's premiere. And while it was briefly mentioned in his return promo, Punk addressed the "Brawl Out" incident from last September in a recent interview with ESPN.
"The first thing I said to Tony when I sat down with him and spoke to him after it was, 'Man, I'm really sorry I put you in that position,'" Punk said regarding his inflammatory comments from the post-show scrum after the All Out pay-per-view. "I apologize for the scrum."
"But when you've watched that scrum, you're looking at a very, very frustrated guy who had told people. That's not the first time he heard all that. It's not the first time lawyers were told all that," Punk continued. "I was just looking for something to be done and nothing got done. So, if you want something done right, you got to do it yourself. I just didn't approach it in the right manner, but tension was high. I was very, very pissed. I pretty much knew that I had just injured myself again. I was hurt, and I was disappointed. It's very easy for me to say I regret that and I handled it the wrong way, 100%."
But when it came to his locker room fight that involved Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks and Ace Steel, Punk said, "I don't think what happened was a big deal. This has happened in the last 10 months in hockey, in basketball, in baseball, in just about every sport. It's covered and it's gone the next day. I think because I have injured my tricep and I've been out for so long, I think it has been exacerbated. I think it's been exacerbated by people spreading lies about the whole thing. And when, in reality, my attitude is, well, s— happens."
