In a now-deleted Instagram story, CM Punk responded to what appears to be a claim by Dave Meltzer on his message board about Punk initially refusing to lose against Jon Moxley on the Aug. 24, 2022, episode of AEW Dynamite.
That was Punk’s first match back in AEW after he broke his foot in June, and it ended up being a title unification squash victory for Jon over CM. Punk then beat Moxley in a rematch at All Out 2022, before a backstage fight with The Elite led to Punk’s current absence from AEW.
First, here is Meltzer responding to a question about why the build to Punk vs. Moxley at All Out was so short and not advertised well in advance:
“Because Punk agreed to it, then AEW got a legal letter saying he wasn’t down with it and wasn’t doing it and they didn’t know if he’d come until Tony put his foot down. There are a lot of nice things I can say about him, and you can absolutely argue his position on Moxley was correct, but you can’t argue he willingly did what he was asked in that scenario.”
Punk then told his side of the story on Instagram, and in doing so, makes some eye-opening accusations against Moxley and AEW President Tony Khan, while also shitting on Chris Jericho:
“SIGH. I wasn’t cleared to come back to wrestle yet. [The] plan was to wrestle at the ppv. I sat and listened to [Moxley’s] Rocky three idea. I explained how I’d never seen a Rocky movie [and I] thought the idea sucked but if the boss wanted to do it whatever. He said he wouldn’t lose to me. I’d never experienced someone refusing to lose to me. I just laughed. I asked Tony if this was what he wanted. He said yes. He’s the boss so I said okay but I’d need to be cleared first. They kept saying it could just be a squash so I didn’t need to be cleared. I scoffed at that. My health is more important. Dave Meltzer is a liar. Jericho is a liar and a stooge. There were plans but plans always change but I’ll never put a company above my health ever again.”
Jericho is widely believed to be one of Meltzer’s sources and is rumored to be staunchly against the idea of Punk ever coming back to AEW, so I would guess that Punk is calling him out for feeding a garbage story to Meltzer.
Punk’s claim that Moxley refused to put him over, and that Tony Khan pressured him to return to the ring before he was medically cleared, are both damning allegations to make against the professionalism and character of each man.
Khan, Jericho, and Moxley are three of the most powerful people in AEW, so the fact that Punk is criticizing them in this brazen manner doesn’t portend optimism regarding his potential return to the company.
What do you make of this one, Cagesiders?
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