Whether you believe CM Punk is the source of the most recent round of backstage drama in AEW or being made to seem like it because he has been in the past, at least say this about the guy: He’s able to own it when he does something that goes awry.
In this case, that means his comments about Hangman Adam Page that were captured by people in the crowd this past Saturday after AEW Collision went off the air. Among other things, Punk made fun of Page being a “peg warmer” (a term used by toy collectors to describe action figures that don’t sell) and implied he couldn’t sell merch or toys.
Was this Punk trying to set up an angle or reignite the tensions between himself and The Elite? As it turns out … it’s quite possible it was neither.
During the Monday episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, Bryan Alvarez said that Punk texted Page an apology after Collision, and that the message was confirmed “from both sides.” Dave Meltzer added that sources close to Punk said it was an attempt at a joke that simply flopped.
Dave Meltzer said that he heard from the Punk side of things that Punk’s comments on Saturday about Page being a “peg warmer” that doesn’t move merchandise was a botched attempt at a comedy line and that he realized it backfired the minute he did the promo.
Though much of the enmity between Punk and The Elite has been centered on the physical altercation he got into with Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks after All Out last year, it was his feelings about Page when the two of them were working a program together that arguably set the whole thing in motion. Punk took exception to a promo Page cut insinuating that Punk used his influence to keep Colt Cabana off TV, something that came up at the very beginning of the now infamous post-All Out press conference tirade.
Both sides have made at least some attempts to move on, and with The Elite on Dynamite and Punk a featured player on Collision, they appear to have little if any interaction with each other. That made Punk’s promo after Collision that much more surprising, but at least he quickly moved to snuff out ay new fires it could have started.