Dave Meltzer Answers Back To CM Punk Controversy
The latest twist in the CM Punk in AEW saga occurred on the 23rd of March when the former AEW World Champion vented some of his frustrations once again on social media.
The post hit out at Chris Jericho who he called a “liar and a stooge” and also claimed that Jon Moxley refused to lose to him while also taking a swipe at wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer.
Punk’s comments came in the wake of a message board post made by Meltzer where it was suggested that Punk was having second thoughts about turning up to the Dynamite match where he lost quickly to Moxley.
Now speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer has had his say on the controversy and noted that he feels bad about what happened following his post:
“So then this time, I did a message board post, that I really wish I never did because so much has happened since then in so many destructive ways. Not just him. It was somebody just going, ‘One thing we can say was it was all smooth as far the match that he lost to Moxley, the real quick match before he beat him for the title’. And I just kind of said, ‘It really wasn’t that smooth’ because it really wasn’t, there was a lot going on. There was drama and everything.
When I said it, it wasn’t writing a news story or anything like that, but when I said it, I never said a lot of it had to do with his injury. And it did. In his defense, he was coming back from a broken foot, and it was a serious injury. And, that played into it as far as when he was gonna be ready. Whatever you think of the angle, the way the angle was, and the whole Rocky 3 thing, if you had more time, the angle would have been better if you had more time. But because of the injury, you didn’t have more time.
There’s things they could have done. But the whole point is a message board post that I didn’t need to make and I didn’t mention the fact that the injury was part of it in the fact that there was drama, which there was. So it’s just like, there was. I feel really bad about it.”
Meltzer then noted that CM Punk had dragged Moxley and Jericho into the situation but noted that neither man had anything to do with his post:
“[…] He kind of blasted Moxley too a bit, and certainly blasted Jericho, and this was at the time when everyone is trying to… see if you can make up, and make this thing work, and do the best thing for the company. And then this happens which just… how it’s gonna turn out, who the hell knows, but it certainly is never a good time to do that. And Jericho had absolutely nothing to do with this message (board) post. Nor did Moxley. And now it’s like, ‘Ah, god’. I just didn’t like this.
I’m just really sad that it happened this way. I want the best thing for the business, both companies. I’m happy WWE’s doing great, and, shoot, I was really happy watching Wednesday and seeing AEW get the good rating and the good rating pattern which was a really good story. The match (Kenny Omega vs El Hijo Del Vikingo) worked, you kinda made a star in one night, we talked about that was a phenomenal match. So everything was kinda looking… there’s always ups and downs but that was like a real up. And now, who the hell knows what’s going on.”
Following CM Punk’s scathing post, it was reported that there are some in AEW that have “lost confidence” that the star will ever return to the company.