More On CM Punk’s ESPN Interview, Internal Reactions From AEW

CM Punk made his return to wrestling on the June 17 Collision.

CM Punk’s ESPN interview came out, and featured him speaking on the record about Brawl Out for the first time since it happened.

We’re told CM Punk did not do any other interviews ahead of AEW Collision besides the ESPN piece, and ESPN was the outlet AEW wanted.

Fightful learned about the interview after being told about something separate that was filmed in regards to the KENTA Forbidden Door match that was a little different than what AEW had anticipated.

Hangman Page, The Elite and others were made aware that the interview was coming the weekend prior, and further conversations were had at the June 14 Dynamite, where word made the rounds that the interview was coming. There is no gag order in place between Hangman Page and Punk

Since the publishing of the article, many have stated that it didn’t seem nearly as bad as indicated. Several on the AEW roster have pointed out that unlike many of the others in the situation, Hangman Page still goes out of his way to not talk about Punk as to not stir anything up. Dating back to last summer, we’re told that Punk had met with higher ups and asked that the Hangman Page comments on TV that alluded to Colt Cabana be addressed in some manner, and that he’d grown very frustrated that nothing was done about it to the level of his satisfaction, which he referenced in the ESPN interview.

We’re told that despite this, The Elite’s contracts are still being worked on between their reps and AEW. Though there were some hiccups between CM Punk and AEW over Ace Steel not being present at shows, he’s been planning to work AEW Collision since he and Tony Khan came to an agreement for it. He and Khan stayed in regular contact, and Punk did outline that he’d be willing to apologize for the AEW All Out scrum, which he did in the ESPN article.

Despite being told that the backstage issues wouldn’t be turned into an angle, there have definitely been people on Punk’s side that are still hopeful that would happen. We haven’t confirmed that lawyers repping anyone rejected Punk reaching out, though that is something that Punk has indicated that he’d tried that months ago. Punk and Omega had a non-heated discussion in the minutes following Brawl Out where Punk said his issue was never with Omega, but the situation had not died down enough for them to have a constructive conversations in that environment.

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