AEW Dealing With “Backstage Drama” Involving Top Stars
It has been reported that there continues to be backstage drama between some of the biggest names in AEW.
This week’s episode of All Elite Wrestling featured a promo from World Champion CM Punk, who started off by talkng about things that AEW management expect him to discuss.
During Punk’s promo on Dynamite, he started off by taking verbal shots at the man he beat for the AEW World Title, “Hangman” Adam Page. Punk even sat in the ring, put the championship on the mat and challenged Page to a match right there. There was no response from Page while fans chanted “Cowboy S**t” in support of Page, so Punk fired back saying it was “coward s**t” by not going out to the ring to confront Punk. This was not planned.
What Punk did at that moment was not well received by people in AEW because even though Page was backstage, he stayed in the back. Punk was supposed to address the Interim AEW World Champion Jon Moxley, which Punk did after his comments about Page.
In yet another update on the story, Dave Meltzer wrote in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the situation with many of the top guys in AEW has gotten “much worse” in the last few weeks. Meltzer cited the issues involving Colt Cabana nearly getting released by the company before they said he was part of the Ring of Honor brand, which is owned by AEW’s Owner/President Tony Khan. Meltzer added that several wrestlers are “close to their breaking point” while writing more about the issues at hand:
“Right now there is a ton of backstage drama involving many of the top guys that has gotten much worse in recent weeks. There’s a part of me where I just think Tony Khan needs to sit everyone down and air everything out before it gets worse. The big thing that started all this is that Colt Cabana is not in the Dark Order with no angle and stopped being brought to television.”
“He was going to be cut but Khan signed him for ROH. This is really the catalyst of everything although different people have different stories as to why it happened, including Page and Punk. But even if that didn’t happen, it was probably going to happen for something else just given the nature of the different personalities involved. It feels like a number of people are close to their breaking point if things don’t get settle.”
CM Punk hasn’t wrestled since the week of winning the AEW World Title at Double or Nothing in May. Punk had surgery on his foot and made his surprising return to Dynamite two weeks ago.
Next week on Dynamite, AEW World Champion CM Punk and Interim World Champion Jon Moxley will have a match to determine the Undisputed AEW World Champion. It was originally announced for All Out on September 4, but then later on Dynamite after Punk & Moxley got in multiple fights, it was announced that the match would be next on Dynamite next week in Cleveland.