Is it that time of year again already? The last 48 hours have seen yet another upswell of backstage drama in AEW, centering around who is and isn’t supposed to be at AEW Collision tapings. The chaos began Saturday night after Collision went off the air, as Punk began denigrating “Hangman” Adam Page to the North Carolina crowd, seemingly in reaction to signs in the crowd. Sources would later tell Haus of Wrestling that Punk felt bad about how his comments came off, but stories soon began emerging about discontent behind the scenes.
On last night’s Wrestling Observer Radio, it was noted that a planned pre-tape involving Page was moved from the site of Collision to somewhere away from the venue. Haus of Wrestling was able to confirm AEW stars Ryan Nemeth and Christopher Daniels had previously been removed from Collision at the request of Punk but were not able to confirm the same about Page.
Appearing on the Battleground podcast to promote AEW’s Fight for the Fallen charity shows this week, Tony Khan was asked about the recent developments involving CM Punk and “Hangman” Adam Page.
“I thought it was a great show Saturday night, and I don’t have any further comment [on] that,” Khan said. “But I am glad people are still very interested in our wrestlers and what’s happening after the wrestling shows. I think we’ll try to have a couple of great shows this week, but certainly, there has been a lot of interest in what’s happening in AEW in and out of the ring.”
The latest update from Fightful Select offers some additional details on the situation. Punk is still interested in working things out with members of The Elite, as a ton of money will be left on the table if they never have a match. However, The Elite still refuses to sit down with Punk. Page has largely removed himself from the situation and currently has not had any interest in working with Punk for at least the last year. There are some within AEW who believe Punk is trying to will an angle with The Elite into existence with his recent words and actions.
In addition to Daniels and Hardy, Fightful was also able to confirm that Isiah Kassidy was booked for a recent Collision taping but was removed alongside Hardy. In their case, their flights and hotels were booked but then unbooked before they left for the show. At least some of those involved believe Punk to be responsible.