Since his return to AEW in June, CM Punk‘s alleged conflicts at AEW tapings have been as frequent as his televised matches. The kettle has been boiling for a long, long time, from AEW sending home personnel with whom he doesn’t get along with from Collision tapings, to keeping him far away from The Elite. The most recent woe featured Punk’s questionably worded promo about Hangman Adam Page after the Aug. 12 episode of Collision ended — though Punk is said to have apologized for that.
Apparently adding to the issues Punk has already faced, Fightful Select (subscription required but recommended) reports that he and Jack Perry had a backstage disagreement over a planned spot that the FTW Champion wanted to do. It happened near the start of Punk’s run on Collision.
Perry came to Collision to film a segment where he wanted to use real glass for a backstage segment. Punk thought that Perry wanted to do this so he wouldn’t have to come to work next week, which he saw as a big problem with the company.
Punk’s side of the story also indicated that Perry disregarded production, doctors, and Tony Schiavone’s advice not to do the spot since breaking real glass was a safety hazard. Consequently, guidelines were put in place after this for spots that require clearance.
Punk reportedly stepped in to calmly tell everyone that Collision doesn’t do this, and that Perry could stay on Wednesdays if he didn’t like it. Word spread that referred to it as an argument, and that Perry had thrown a temper tantrum over the spot not being cleared. Fightful Select added that it is unknown how the situation ended, but that several people had sided with Punk.
Punk-related activities backstage have seemingly escalated since this conflict. Despite this, Perry’s incident appears to be more about safety than anything else, which, on the surface, is beneficial for protecting everyone’s health and well-being.
However, AEW All In and All Out in Chicago are approaching, and the stories around Punk are not slowing down. If more of these incidents occur, it begs the question of if, or when, the bubble will burst as it did at All Out 2022.