In a now-deleted Instagram story, CM Punk responded to what appeared to be a claim by Dave Meltzer on his message board that Punk initially refused to lose to Jon Moxley on the August 24, 2022 episode of AEW Dynamite.
This was Punk’s first match in AEW after breaking his foot in June and it ended in a unification squash win for Jon over CM. Punk then defeated Moxley in a rematch at All Out 2022 before a backstage fight with The Elite resulted in Punk’s current absence from AEW.
First, Meltzer responds to a question as to why the Punk vs. Moxley build at All Out was so short and not announced well in advance:
“Because Punk agreed to that, AEW then got a legal letter saying they didn’t agree and they didn’t do it, and they didn’t know if he was coming until Tony stepped on the gas. There are many nice things I can say about him and you can absolutely argue that his position on Moxley was correct, but you cannot argue that in this scenario he willingly did what was asked of him.
Punk then shared his side of the story on Instagram, making some eye-opening accusations against Moxley and AEW President Tony Khan, while also giving a shit about Chris Jericho:
“SIGHING. I haven’t had clearance to return to wrestling yet. [The] The plan was to wrestle at the PPV. I sat and listened [Moxley’s] Rocky three idea. I explained that I had never seen a Rocky movie [and I] thought the idea sucked, but if the boss wanted to do it. He said he wouldn’t lose to me. I had never seen anyone refuse to lose to me. I just laughed I asked Tony if he wanted that. He said yes. He’s the boss, so I said ok, but I would have to be acquitted first. They kept saying it could just be a pumpkin so I didn’t need to be erased. I scoffed at it. My health is more important. Dave Meltzer is a liar. Jericho is a liar and henchman. There were plans, but plans keep changing, but I will never put a company above my health ever again.”
It’s widely believed that Jericho is one of Meltzer’s sources, and it’s rumored that he’s strongly opposed to the idea of Punk ever returning to AEW, so I’d guess Punk is calling him for telling Meltzer a garbage story .
Punk’s claims that Moxley refused to hand him over and that Tony Khan pressured him to return to the ring before his medical discharge are both damning allegations against the professionalism and character of each and every man.
Khan, Jericho, and Moxley are three of the most powerful people at AEW, so the fact that Punk is blatantly criticizing them doesn’t suggest optimism about his eventual return to the company.
What do you think of this, cagesiders?
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