CM Punk opened the most recent episode of AEW Wednesday Night Dynamite with a scathing promo, and there's a lot more fire behind the smokey comments he made about Hangman Adam Page. Before getting to Jon Moxley and the most important pay-per-view in company history, All Out, Punk decided to call out Hangman for a title re-match. Right then and there, unadvertised and on free television. Fans were initially ecstatic but let down when Page was nowhere to be found. "That's not cowboy s***. That's coward s***," Punk exclaimed.
The AEW World Champion then went on to give Hangman some direction. "A little bit of advice that I suggest you take. The apology must be as loud and as public as the disrespect. And if anybody else has a problem with the champion, well, I suggest you come on down. Because everybody wants to be the champ until it's time to do champ s***." Punk then turned his attention to Jon Moxley, continuing a promo that frequently strayed into heel territory. "Tell me when I'm telling lies" was a refrain he used multiple times while taking his shots.
After the August 17 broadcast of Dynamite, several reports erupted online, dramatically changing how some fans view Punk. Fightful Select reported the following bombshell: "Sources familiar with the situation claim that CM Punk has often verbally expressed his displeasure about things, including recently so blatantly that they thought he might end up quitting the company." Expanding upon this a few days later, Dave Meltzer wrote this in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter: "Page was there backstage and knew nothing about this, nor did anyone. Everyone was just confused as to what Punk was doing. He offered to put up the title right now, which the announcers thought was strange as they didn't know about this."
Punk's Issues With Hangman Page Are Months Old
Later, on Wrestling Observer Radio, Bryan Alvarez went further, stating that he believed that "Punk went into business for himself and then moved on." It's been speculated that Punk's call out of Hangman was a receipt for things Page said during their face-to-face confrontation on May 25. That was a build-up towards their match at Double Or Nothing, with some wondering if Adam wandered off script during his section of the promo. Going off script and shooting on someone like Punk isn't a great idea. If that's what Hangman Page did back in May, and if this is the only fallout from The Voice Of The Voiceless, he got off easy.
There's some belief from the likes of Meltzer that Punk was upset when Hangman brought up Colt Cabana during their segment three months ago. And that Adam was angry because Punk's presence meant Cabana had been banished from television, leading him to shoot on CM in May. Cabana is one of Punk's former best friends, but the two no longer speak following a lawsuit between the two. Pundits such as Jim Cornette stated that if Cabana was the reason Page decided to go off script, he should have been fired or sent home for being unprofessional. Punk's fight against Moxley to unify the AEW Heavyweight championship was moved off of All Out and placed on free television and is set to take place on August 24, which added more fuel to this tire fire. Meltzer wrote that a "number of people are close to their breaking point," adding that Tony Khan needs to figure this out soon.
Sources: Fightful Select, Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Wrestling Observer Radio, Jim Cornette/YouTube