More on CM Punk’s Unplanned Promo to Hangman Page & Several Talents Sent Home from Collision

As noted before, CM Punk gave an unplanned shoot promo directed towards Hangman Adam Page following this past Saturday’s AEW Collision show in Greensboro, North Carolina. Besides Page, several AEW talents were recently sent home from Collision tapings due to backstage issues believed to be related to CM Punk.

In regards to Punk’s shoot promo towards Page, Bryan Alvarez reported in a recent episode of the Wrestling Observer Radio that his sources stated that Punk had sent text messages to Page apologizing over his actions. Alvarez reported it is currently not known if there was any follow-up conversations between the two. Dave Meltzer reported that those close to Punk stated that Punk’s promo directed towards Page calling him a “peg warmer” was only meant to be something comedic that Punk botched in delivery and not as an actual rant.

In regards to Page being told to tape his segment for Wednesday’s Dynamite show outside of the venue at this past Saturday’s Collision show, Meltzer and Alvarez reported that it is currently not known who made the actual decision for this. Those from Punk’s side reportedly stated that Punk did not play any role in Page being removed from the venue while at least one person spoken to stated that they were not even aware that Page was at the venue when the incident happened.

In a recent interview with the Battleground podcast, AEW CEO Tony Khan did not offer any official comment regarding Punk’s post-show promo. Khan stated “No, not really. I thought it was a great show on Saturday night. I don’t have any further comment to that, but I’m glad people are still very interested in our wrestlers and what’s happening after the wrestling shows. We’ll try to have a couple of great shows this week, and certainly, there has been a lot of interest in what’s happening in AEW in it and out of the ring.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In regards to several talent being sent home from recent Collision shows, PWTorch’s Wade Keller reported that his sources stated that Punk’s backstage incident with Ryan Nemeth took place at the June 21st Dynamite show that he made an unadvertised appearance. Those spoken to reportedly stated that Punk confronted Nemeth very up close in the locker room and got into a heated argument saying if they had a problem or needed to settle it outside. Punk berated Nemeth for the tweet he made saying that it inflamed existing tensions and and that the optics of his tweet sent a bad message. Those backstage who witnessed this incident reportedly described it as being awkward and weird. Nemeth reportedly then moved the argument to the hallway and defended himself stating that Punk took the first shot at the Young Bucks. Punk reportedly responded back stating that Nemeth’s tweet was in bad timing and worked against the image they were going for of everyone being on the same page and not inflaming existing tensions. Nemeth reportedly responded back saying if he should not respond to things Punk says on television, which Punk stated back that it would be the right move for him. This confrontation ended with both guys shaking hands but the tension was described to still have been high.

Keller reported that Nemeth contacted his friends backstage and asked them how to handle the situation since he has almost no leverage compared to Punk within AEW. Nemeth reportedly decided to back off and lay low in order to not jeopardize his job in AEW if he continued to cause issues with Punk. This same stance reportedly is currently shared by others within AEW’s locker room over not wanting to risk their job security by being on Punk’s enemies list.

In regards to talents being removed from Collision tapings, Keller reported that the main reason is due to Punk being very protective of Collision being a low drama backstage environment and does not want anyone perceived to be disloyal or close to The Elite to be backstage at Collision tapings.

Besides Page, Nemeth, Matt Hardy, and Christopher Daniels, Fightful Select reported that Isiah Kassidy was also among those who had been booked only to be sent home instead at a recent Collision taping. The reason why Kassidy was sent home was not given but all of the talent who have been affected reportedly are currently under the belief that it is due to Punk.

Fightful Select also reported that while those close to Punk stated that Punk still claims that he wants to sitdown with The Elite to settle their issues, others spoken to stated that Page is not interested in a meeting with Punk nor is willing to work with him again.

In regards to Christopher Daniels, Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer reported that those spoken from both sides of the issue confirmed that Punk had specifically requested for Daniels to not be allowed to work backstage at Collision tapings. Those spoken to reportedly confirmed that this was due to Daniels being involved in the All Out backstage brawl incident. Punk’s stance reportedly is if Steel is not allowed to be backstage at Collision shows as part of the terms of his rehiring, he wanted the same to be done for Daniels despite Daniels being AEW’s Head of Talent Relations.