Freddie Prinze Jr. has claimed that CM Punk is not a popular man backstage in AEW, and it’s not simply to do with the situation around Colt Cabana.
On the August 17th episode of AEW Dynamite, CM Punk called out Hangman Adam Page and challenged him to a fight before branding him a coward. It was later reported that Punk’s comments took everyone in AEW surprise as they were completely unscripted. Furthermore, there appears to be legitimate heat between the two, with the report adding that Punk “went into business for himself.”
Additional reports stated that CM Punk has become increasingly unhappy in AEW, and he and Page legitimately don’t like one another.
The most recent report on the situation has claimed that the situation with “many of the top guys” in AEW has got increasingly worse in recent weeks with some “at breaking point” should these issues not be resolved. The same report suggested that the issues stemmed from Colt Cabana’s contractual situation with the company.
However, speaking on his podcast Wrestling With Freddie, former WWE writer Freddie Prinze Jr. has claimed that he’s been told that the issues run much deeper than first thought. The Hollywood star claimed that the bad feeling has arisen following Punk’s conduct backstage.
“There’s two ways to look at it. [Either] it’s work-shoot and he’s trying to turn heel or there’s real stuff going on and it was receipt time. I happen to know that it’s more of the latter, and I think he’s just trying to take advantage of it and saying ‘Okay, I’ll roll with it’. But not everyone backstage loves CM Punk and it’s not just because of Colt Cabana. It’s because of the way they feel he’s behaved since he’s got there behind the curtain.
It was actually something that Hangman Page said in his promo when they were having their run to the title [match]. I remember [Page] said ‘I’m not just defending this title, I’m defending for all of those people back there’. A lot of people don’t feel like Punk shows anyone respect really, at least not the type of respect.. well let’s change the word cause respect is earned. The type of dignity that one would expect at work.
When you don’t treat people as necessary parts of the pie, and I’ve seen this in a lot of movies, people look at you a certain way. That’s what I’ve been told as the kind of stuff that is going on. Hangman Page said a lot of real stuff.”
AEW World Champion CM Punk is scheduled to be back in action on the August 24th edition of Dynamite in a huge unification match against Interim World Champion Jon Moxley.
H/t to Fightful for the transcription.