Ex-AEW Star Tells The Truth About Infamous CM Punk Match

A former AEW star has opened up about an infamous match with CM Punk and explained what really went wrong.

CM Punk’s first year in AEW was a dream for the company, for Punk, and for fans, as everyone enjoyed the former WWE Champion’s return to wrestling after several long years away.

And then things went catastrophically wrong.

CM Punk berated several people in the company at a media scrum after winning the AEW World Championship and was then subsequently involved in a physical fight with The Young Bucks. That fight came about despite Punk suffering a torn muscle during his title win over Jon Moxley, meaning that he’d likely have to vacate the title. The decision was made to strip Punk of his gold and The Elite of the AEW Trios Title, as everyone involved was suspended.

Punk eventually returned as the face of the new Collision show in the summer of 2023. But by that point, the bloom was off the rose. A matter of weeks after his return, he ended up in another physical altercation, this time with Jack Perry, and the decision was made to fire CM Punk, which ended up paving the way for his return to WWE.

However, there was a sign that not everyone was thrilled with Punk’s arrival in AEW shortly after he made his debut. In October 2021, CM Punk had a match with Bobby Fish that was as bizarre as it was bad. Fish kicked out immediately after the three-count following a GTS – usually a no-no in wrestling.

CM Punk Insisted Everything Was Fine With Bobby Fish

Now, Bobby Fish has given his side of the story in a YouTube video where he explained what really happened. Fish began by explaining that he thinks their chemistry was okay, but he was not a fan of the more martial arts-based approach that Punk was taking:

I think, dare I say, our chemistry wasn’t bad. I remembered him from my days coming up; that when he went out and just wrestled, he was actually a decent wrestler. A pretty marginal athlete, I think he was very awkward, but as just a pro-wrestler, I didn’t think he was bad.

Where I thought he dropped the ball quite a bit was when he attempted to do more of a martial arts-based thing, which, him coming back to pro-wrestling after years of being away, I was actually a little surprised that that’s what he was coming back with. Because when he fought in the UFC, I think he represented our sport pretty poorly. I don’t think the man’s a very accomplished martial artist, and that just is what it is.

In our match, I was definitely – being a martial artist myself – I definitely was including some things, and it did appear to me that he was gonna do some of the same things, which… sure. Let’s do it.

Like I said, I think the match itself, our chemistry, wasn’t bad. What everybody’s interested in, what everybody wants to talk about, is the ending of this match. When the match ended, I was putting Phil over. In our industry, that’s doing the job, that’s doing the honors – you get paid to win or lose. So you go out and you do your job, or you do the job.

As far as the pinfall went, Bobby Fish explained that he was given the “iggy” by CM Punk and panicked in the moment, making the decision to kick out. Fish is adamant that he did not go into business for himself:

I was set to do that that evening, and planned on doing it. In the moment of the pin, he squeezed my arm or my leg, to be honest, it’s all this time ago, I don’t remember exactly what it was, but it’s what we call in the industry the office or the iggy. And you generally do it to get someone’s attention.

So this has then multiplied over many iterations to mean quite a few things in this industry. I know sometimes, you’ll have a good match with somebody and on the pin, you give them the iggy to let them know, ‘Hey, I appreciated that. Thank you.’ There’s different kinds of iggies, as crazy as that sounds.

But the iggy that I got in that moment was as if he was trying to get my attention. I don’t know what it was or why it was, but in that split second, I had an opportunity to, for lack of a better term, s**t or get off the pot. So it was like… why is he trying to get my attention? Do I let it pass, or do I do something to change the outcome of what’s happening and acquiesce to, ‘Okay, what are you trying to get out of me?’

There was not a lot of time to think about this, so it was like, do or don’t do. And I did. And what I did was kick out – knowing, okay, if this wasn’t what the intention was, pick me up and hit your move again, or whatever you wanna do, I don’t know.

It was an instance where I did not have a lot of time to think, so I kicked out. I know, after the fact, a lot of people have said I was going into business for myself, etc, etc. I can confirm for you that that certainly has nothing to do with what my mindset was at that time.

After the match, Fish claimed that CM Punk went straight to Tony Khan rather than discussing the match with Fish himself. He also noted that he gave Punk chance after chance to air any issues he had, but Punk insisted everything was fine:

After the match is when I have a hard time respecting my opponent. When we got to the back, obviously, something happened; there was a mistake of some kind. So when I got to the back, and my expectation was that I would encounter my opponent, we would discuss, I would apologise, or at least own what happened, that opportunity was not given to me.

What was given to me was Mr Brooks in the ear of Tony Khan. It was obvious to me that they were talking about me because they were looking at me and talking. So I approached the couple. When I got there, they split and walked away from not only me but each other.

After that, I had to go back to the locker room. Not the boys’ locker room, because he didn’t change in the boys’ locker room, so I went back to his locker room to get my gear bag, my things, and I encountered him in there.

Yet another opportunity for him to discuss with me whatever he may have or not had an issue with. And I gave him that opportunity. I mentioned – I don’t remember what I said – but I gave him the opportunity to air whatever grievances he might have had.

He continued to say over and over, ‘No, it’s fine, it’s fine.’ Meanwhile, the way that he was saying what he was saying, it was obvious that things were not fine. To me, it’s super passive aggressive and it’s not the way men, it’s not the way masculine people handle business.

In that moment, I start to feel like, okay, I’m a pro-wrestler, way down on the list – I’m a father before I’m a pro-wrestler, I’m somebody’s husband before I’m a pro-wrestler, I’m somebody’s son before I’m a pro-wrestler. So if you’ve got a grievance with me or there’s an issue with something I did or didn’t do, let’s talk about it.

I’m not even saying we have to fight, I’m just saying, if it comes down to that, because that’s the only way that you can feel as if you’ve been heard, then that’s fine because that’s what men do. But men also discuss and talk about what the grievance is. That did not happen.

And I gave Phil more than one opportunity to do that. And he didn’t take that. So that for me, I lost some respect for the man at that time, because if you’re going to have a problem, the quickest way to get a resolution to your problem is to go to the source, not to go to the booker, not to go to anybody else.

[…] I guess my claim to Phil would be like, own your part of it. You iggy’d me. I don’t know why. But I guess it’s neither here nor there.

I didn’t do it to go into business for myself. It was a misunderstanding and misunderstandings happen, especially in any competitive live work. And then it comes down to the way you handle things afterwards, and in my opinion, he didn’t handle things afterwards in the best way he could have. [h/t WrestleTalk]

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