Over the last few weeks, AEW has found itself amid a storm of ongoing reports about friction backstage, and CM Punk's name hasn't been left out of the headlines. That's not too surprising for fans who have followed his career closely. During his time in WWE, the Voice Of The Voiceless grew agitated to the point of apparently being challenging to work with. He became disillusioned with wrestling, to the point that he needed to take several years away from the squared circle to rediscover his love of it.
Punk's first year with AEW went over as well as Tony Khan could have hoped. He's established himself as the biggest draw in the company and has proven capable of moving plenty of merchandise and pay-per-view buys. When Punk was on the shelf with a broken foot, there's no question that All Elite felt like a less cohesive product. Perhaps that's because The Best In The World wasn't floating around backstage with an open-door policy, willing to help the up-and-comers learn how to be high-end professional wrestlers. Big of a deal as Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks were in NJPW, and on the independent scene, they can't hold a candle to what CM Punk did on the biggest stage of them all. As such, Punk's experiences carry a certain amount of water.
FTR recently opened up about Punk, speaking at length to Steven Muehlhausen of DAZN about the ongoing backstage turmoil. Cash Wheeler weighed in on why some performers might have a problem with CM: "I think it's a lot of things from the past, mostly. I think there's a lot of old grudges. I think there's a lot of old biases." He continued, stating that "I know there's going to be old tension. But as far as how he is as a person now, he couldn't be more inviting. He couldn't be more company-oriented as far as what he's thinking and anything to the contrary; I really think it's uneducated to go off of it because there's only been one side (and) that's all been the negative stuff." Dax Harwood also chimed in, pointing out that "CM Punk goes into business for himself" is a much better headline than "CM Punk invites Will Hobbs into his locker room and explains to him for 30 minutes what he could have done to better." (h/t and a thank you to Jermy Lambert of Fightful.com for the transcription)
CM Punk Remains Silent Amid Backstage Issues
Names such as Thunder Rosa, Britt Baker, Eddie Kingston, Sammy Guevara, and others have emerged as wrestlers reportedly involved in backstage issues at this juncture. Kingston and Guevara are said to have squashed their beef, but their (very) public fallout still drew headlines. So much so that William Regal has tried to distance the Blackpool Combat Club from the situation entirely.
During the interview, FTR pointed out that Punk has largely remained silent on these issues. That's fair insofar that CM reportedly went into business for himself during a Dynamite-opening promo, calling out Hangman Adam Page when he wasn't aware that his name was going to be brought up. FTR has clarified their feelings clear on CM Punk, but it remains to be seen whether or not Khan can get everyone in AEW on the same page moving forward.
Source: DAZ, Fightful.com