CM Punk Promotes Collision, Says He Worried Hangman Page Would Hurt Him

CM Punk is coming back. We obviously knew that since it was promoted on AEW TV, but now it’s been officially confirmed by the man himself in an interview with ESPN. The long piece details a lot about Punk, his injuries, and much more. Of course, what everyone wants to hear is how Punk feels about Hangman Page, Kenny Omega, and the Young Bucks.

While Punk promised that he would get a lot of things off his chest on the debut episode of AEW Collision, he also acted like it was Festivus in June and aired some grievances to ESPN.

The article states that Punk felt like he had a good relationship with the Elite when he first came to AEW. Punk would consult with Omega before matches to make sure Punk wasn’t repeating any of his spots, for instance. CM Punk even checked in on Hangman Page when he was sick with COVID-19. However, it all changed with the now infamous “workers’ rights” promo.

As we know, this upset Punk. However, we now have confirmation that he considered not going through with the scheduled match between himself and Page at Double or Nothing 2022. He ended up doing the match, but was concerned that Page would turn it into a shoot.

“And 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, ‘OK, did you do that on purpose?’ You chip my tooth, and I’m like, ‘All right, 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— been done about it.”

Of course, we know what happened after that in terms of the broken foot, the All Out press conference, and everything else that has been discussed nonstop since September.

CM Punk says that he regrets the scrum and that he has apologized to Tony Khan. The article doesn’t say anything about apologizing to any of the members of the Elite, however. Though Punk claims he tried to reach out, but got messages back from lawyers saying “do not contact this person.”

He does say that “we are trying to move past what happened that night specifically,” but who is “we” and what they are trying to do isn’t clear.

What is clear is that Punk still believes he is defending himself and he isn’t happy at how he’s been painted as the bad guy online.

“Now we all got to roll in the f—ing mud, and that never should have happened and has never been course-corrected,” Punk said. “So, I understand people want to say that, ‘Oh, man, Punk is a dick.’ Well yeah, because I’m defending myself and I will always defend myself. I’m open to have a full-blown f—ing sit-down powwow discussion with everybody about it. But it hasn’t happened yet, and it’s not because of my lack of trying.”

Of course, since this interview was apparently arranged by AEW, it seems possible that all of this is being done to promote Collision. In fact, the article itself ends with what is essentially a plug for the new show.

Nine months after stepping off the news conference stage in Hoffman Estates, Punk will be down the road in Chicago, his hometown, with an open forum yet again. The wrestling world will surely be waiting with bated breath.

How much is real? How much is storyline? Did something real turn into a storyline? Did a storyline turn real? These are the questions everyone has been asking for almost a year, and it seems unlikely that we’re going to get a firm answer anytime soon.