AEW Arranged CM Punk’s Controversial ESPN Interview

CM Punk’s return to AEW hasn’t even gone down yet, and there is already controversy surrounding his name. He spoke to ESPN in a yet-to-be-released interview, and word is a lot of things were said.

According to Wade Keller on PW Torch, he anticipates that there may be some bad press for AEW between now and Saturday that could potentially create further drama. While he didn’t have specific details or enough information to provide a clear explanation, he believes that this upcoming week could be tumultuous. Based on the information he has gathered from sources within AEW, it seems like it will be an eventful period behind the scenes.

Recently, Fightful Select revealed that there were plans for a match between KENTA and CM Punk as part of AEW Forbidden Door. However, it was later disclosed that Punk had reservations about working with KENTA and expressed concerns about potentially appearing unfavorable in an interview. Nevertheless, there appears to be a deeper story at play here, suggesting that this revelation could have been intentionally orchestrated for a specific purpose.

Fightful Select went on to note that this situation has a lot of layers to it. Now, it appears that the details of the ESPN interview are coming to light.

There are a lot of facets to this that have unraveled since then that may become more clear. We’re told that an ESPN interview is supposed to drop sometime soon, where Punk was talking about a number of topics. Among those topics was The Elite, and word got back to several on the roster at the June 14 AEW Dynamite tapings, and some of it didn’t go over well based on second-hand reports of what Punk said, which could be seen as “his version of what is true.”

We’re told that AEW did set up the interview and monitored things, but that CM Punk spoke in a way that would blur the lines, and create buzz for upcoming shows. Specifically, we’d heard that he’d answered questions in a way that would make the audience wonder if it was him angling for a story, or if he was shooting. We aren’t sure what eventually will make it into the final ESPN piece, but we heard that the interview was conducted last week. We’re told that Punk was very aware that it could come off polarizing based on his responses.

We’ve been told that Hangman Page was brought up in a manner that absolutely was not confusing in a work-shoot perspective, and were clearly intentional, and made very clear that he didn’t like Hangman Page. Punk had said that there were spots in the Double or Nothing match that he felt like were Page “shooting” on him by chopping him in the face during the match.

Recently, we’d reported that CM Punk was sent a series of documents that protected AEW, which included some non-disparagements.

We will have to see how CM Punk’s return to AEW pans out. He will certainly have the pro wrestling world’s eyes on him. That being said, those in WWE don’t really seem to care.

What’s your take on CM Punk’s AEW return? Is it a good idea?