AEW appears to be plagued by major backstage drama following the events surrounding last week’s episode of AEW Collision.
It was reported that Christopher Daniels, Ryan Nemeth, and Matt Hardy were all scheduled to work recent episodes of AEW Collision, but were “sent home” after CM Punk pulled the strings.
On the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer reported that “everyone is agreeing” that Punk had Christopher Daniels removed from Collision.
Punk views Daniels on the side of The Elite since the latter has been a recurring presence on Being The Elite.
In addition, Punk reportedly has the power to make decisions such as sending Daniels home, and AEW “is doing everything in their power” to keep the former AEW World Champion “happy” since he is viewed as an indispensable asset to the company. Meltzer said,
“If Ace Steel can’t come, then Chris Daniels shouldn’t come. People who were kicked out believe the reason they were kicked out is different from the people who were alleged to kick them out, who claim no responsibility, with the exception of Daniels and Ryan Nemeth.”
Moreover, several sources within AEW are “very, very frustrated” that the drama “continues to happen” especially just two weeks before AEW All In 2023. Meltzer added,
“Not one, but I’ve had two people who pretty much said, in the last two days that are not names anyone would come up with in this discussion, who basically told me like, this thing is going to be a giant explosion, it’s going to be terrible for the company unless it’s nipped in the bud right now, and when it happens, you know, you can see it happening, and whatever.”
It was agreed backstage that The Young Bucks could not say any negative remarks about Punk, and vice versa at the time the former AEW World Champion was being brought back to AEW.
However, at the time these details were being worked out, AEW management reportedly did not bring up “Hangman” Adam Page and did not ban Punk from saying anything negative about Page.
With regard to Ryan Nemeth, Pwinsider has shared some details on how Punk escalated the situation. The report states,
“In regard to the Ryan Nemeth situation, one AEW talent believed that him being sent home may have been precipitated by Nemeth walking around and saying hello to everyone at the hotel before the taping, but not stopping and saying hello to CM Punk and others Punk was with.
The talent noted that several weeks ago, Punk had held a locker room meeting about trying to keep the Collision locker room as drama free as possible and that with Nemeth having knocked Punk on Twitter around the time he returned to the ring in Chicago for the Collision premiere, that would fly in the face of that.”
The report also sheds light on the rumor that Punk also had “Hangman” Adam Page ‘removed’ from the Collision taping this past Saturday.
The Second City Saint took shots at the Cowboy after the show went off the air and reportedly apologized via a text message for his promo later. The report states,
“Sources within AEW confirmed to PWInsider.com this morning that Hangman Page was not “removed” from this past Saturday’s Collision taping.
It was simply a case of the location of the promo being moved to a different place, which had zero to do with CM Punk. The belief is that the Punk promo after the show bled into the promo being moved by those looking to knock Punk.
As we noted yesterday, Page lives in the Greensboro area, which is why the promo was going to be filmed that day. It was not a case of the company sending him on the road and then sending him home.
We are also told by the same sources that Punk texted an apology to Page early Sunday morning but the same sources remained unaware if the two sides had conversed, just that an apology had been sent.
Punk noted he was “rocked” during the same post-match promo but no one has confirmed he was concussed during the six man tag against the House of Black.”
AEW is currently trying to figure out how to maintain a peaceful backstage environment when all their top stars will be in the same building together for AEW All In and All Out, with the Wembley show being the company’s biggest event of all time.
Previously, AEW tackled the situation by putting The Elite and Punk on opposite sides of the arena for AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door II.
