In this WrestleTalk News, some of CM Punk’s AEW backstage heat has been explained, an
update on the rumour that The Young Bucks want to go to WWE, some WWE creative plan
updates and more. Subscribe and enable notifications to always on for daily wrestling news videos.
Since All Out the wrestling news cycle has been dominated by one man: CM Punk. And that
would be because after All Out, CM Punk did a media scrum promo - a reportedly planned
out ahead of time promo for that matter - calling out Colt Cabana, Hangman Adam Page, MJF, Kenny
Omega and The Young Bucks. What resulted was a backstage fight between Punk, his trainer
Ace Steel and The Elite - where Kenny Omega reportedly saved a dog and Ace Steel took
a bite out of him for his troubles - and all five men have since been suspended by the
company; with CM Punk being stripped of the AEW World Championship, and The Elite being
stripped of the Trios titles. While this suspension has not been officially announced by All Elite
Wrestling - as there are reportedly “legal issues” surrounding the event which prevents
anyone from talking about it - although according to Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer
Newsletter, “some want to talk and tell their side of the story” - Punk, Omega and
The Bucks have been removed from the title intros for both Dynamite and Rampage; and
none of the names were mentioned on either broadcast. So while not official, we can put
1 and 1 together and not get 3. I paraphrased a lyric from Cult of Personality
did you see what I did there? So with all those names floating around, and
the title of this video being about CM Punk’s backstage heat with someone in AEW, we’d
better spin the wheel and narrow down who it is we’re talking about.
Huh… Bobby Fish. Didn’t see that one coming. Although, we probably should have.
Lost in the All Out Fallout was a news story last week of former AEW star Bobby Fish - whose
contract expired last month leading to the two parties parting ways - calling out Punk
on his Undisputed podcast, challenging the former AEW World Champ to an MMA fight.
Insert CM Punk UFC joke here. Fish was then invited onto NBC Sports Boston
to talk about this further, which has now become my favourite wrestler interview of
2022 because he said the line, “Phil was a c**t”... just gonna let that hang in the
air for a bit. The full quote was:
“I'm working for AEW, they're paying my check, you ask me to put my shoulders down
for Phil Brooks, I go out and do it. Interestingly enough, there was a little whatever in the
match we had, and Phil was...after the match, Phil was a c**t. Frankly, as a martial artist,
I went out and laid my shoulders down for you, you should be grateful that I did because
on national TV, if I decided that I wanted to f***ing Haku your ass, I could have because
you're that little of a threat in my world.” Also my favourite wrestler interview of 2022
for bringing up Haku, top work there Bob. But, what does this all stem from?
Back in October last year, CM Punk and Bobby Fish had a match on AEW Dynamite - I know,
I’d forgotten about it too - which Punk obviously won with the GTS. Some people did
notice, however, that when Punk got the pin on Fish, Bobby essentially kicked out of the
GTS on the 3-count. If you go back and watch the footage, Fish gets his shoulders off the
mat and kicks out of the move the second the ref’s hand counts the final 3 to end the
match. Speaking with Wrestling Headlines, Fish explains
that he ‘kicked out’ at the 3-count because Punk had given him “an iggy” - i.e. a
wrestler’s way of saying ‘good match’, but he did during the count and not after
the count, which is apparently the done thing. And Fish took to mean that Punk wanted to
change something in the finish. He told Wrestling Headlines, “in that moment, I know for myself,
like I had to make a split second decision… I had to either kick out or not kick out or
lose the moment forever. So I kicked out and it was whatever it was.”
But this is reportedly the moment that caused genuine heat between the two.
Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select had several people reach out to him - some of which he
describes as “backstage detractors of Punk” - to tell him that Punk “wasn’t happy”
about Fish kicking out of the GTS at 3 and that it was “the catalyst of their poor
relationship.” He adds, “Several people who remembered
being backstage at the match were confused as to why [Fish] would do that, knowing that
it likely wouldn't go over well.” Some have pointed out that perhaps Fish kicked
out of the move because Punk took a while to get into the pin after hitting the GTS,
but Fightful Select spoke with one veteran who said, “[Punk] was actively selling for
Bobby Fish in doing so.” I also want to point out here that I think
this is also the first news story since Punk came back from injury where he hasn’t been
portrayed as the bad guy, so that’s certainly something.
Although there are those who believe he is the innocent party in the All Out fight - or
the Brawl Out, if you will - as the story from the Punk/Steel side of things is that
The Young Bucks were the aggressors in instigating the fight; with one report saying that Matt
and Nick Jackson “kicked the door down” to get into Punk’s locker room - although
new reports have softened on the ‘kicking down the door’ part of the story.
Stealing a joke from Ultrachatter Pansexual Chocolate on our AEW Dynamite review on the
WrestleTalk Podcast: do you think the Young Bucks slapped the leg when they kicked the
door down? When the fight initially broke out, Sean Ross
Sapp tweeted: “some very important names were pissed off and threatening to walk out
over this.” It’s speculated that those important names
were in fact The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega. Now I know that you’re thinking: ‘there’s
no way The Young Bucks or Kenny Omega would leave AEW’, but it’s worth reminding ourselves
that we all said that about Cody Rhodes back in February.
And in an interesting twist to the story, Ryan Frederick of the Wrestling Observer family
noted on the F4Online message boards - I love that Figure Four is so old school they still
have an active message board - that The Young Bucks, “did reach out to a talent [within
WWE] to send feelers that they would be interested in talking about coming in when their deals
are up.” He continued, “I can’t confirm they actually
talked to WWE people themselves, but they talked to other WWE talent about coming in”.
Frederick specifies that if The Bucks did reach out to WWE, they would have to do so
through talent rather than the office as doing that might be considered contract tampering
- and there are current legal letters being sent out between WWE and AEW over this issue
which was reported last month. Frederick also adds that this is something
The Young Bucks would have done when their contracts are up anyway, as that would be
the best leveraging tool to get yourself the best deal possible - i.e. put WWE and AEW
into a bidding war over your services; something Randy Orton did to great effect in 2019 [Randy
Orton Elite photo]. This report was also mis-attributed by some
outlets to Dave Meltzer, likely because Ryan Frederick is a podcaster for the Wrestling
Observer family of podcasts - and Meltzer clarified on Wrestling Observer Radio that
this did not come from him. His co-host Bryan Alvarez also shot down the story somewhat
by saying, “I wouldn’t read too much into the story” of The Young Bucks either asking
for their releases or sending feelers out to WWE.
Meltzer himself added that The Bucks are under contract with AEW until the end of 2023, but
also said, “We have to wait until a lot of things play out. I don’t know how this
thing’s gonna play out.” The Young Bucks to WWE confirmed.
Speaking of Jackass and it’s been revealed by Prestige Wrestling that Jackass star Danger
Ehren is set to make his in-ring debut during Halloween weekend in Portland, Oregon. He
will be on the same card as Alex Shelley, Deonna Purazzo, Eddie Edwards, Davey Richards
and more. There’s no real story here, I just wanted
to add it in as I watched Jackass Forever again over the weekend and enjoyed it immensely.
An actual wrestling story, however, is the current plans for Raw star Veer Mahaan.
Veer Mahaan began coming to Raw back in November 2021 after he was split from his team with
Jinder Mahal and Shanky, but it took him all the way until April 4th 2022 to finally climax
on Raw, all over Rey and Dominik Mysterio. He then got the typical WWE monster push of
squashing local talent to less and less reaction. He’s only had one match under the Triple
H era of WWE, beating another local talent in under 2-minutes, and there was some speculation
from fans that - like Omos - he might be a victim of the Trips regime; i.e. he was pushed
under Vince McMahon, but not is not factored into Triple H’s plans.
And according to Fightful Select, fan speculation might actually be correct here. Sean Ross
Sapp writes, “We've heard there aren't significant imminent creative plans for Veer as of right
now.” However he does add, “As with anything,
that can change.” And speaking of potential changes, Ringside
News are reporting that despite appearing on SmackDown not once, not thrice but twice,
Toxic Attraction of Gigi Dolan and Jacy Jane are not getting called up to the main roster.
The pair were called in as a replacement for Zoey Stark and Nikitta Lyons when Lyons had
visa or vaccination issues depending on who you believe, and then made another appearance
on SmackDown this past Friday in a match with Aliyah and Raquel Rodriguez.
Ringside News add that Toxic Attraction are still listed as NXT talent.
And lastly we here at WrestleTalk would like to extend our condolences to the Fightful
family, after the passing of Elias Theodorou, who died at the age of 34 due to stage 4 liver
cancer. Theodorou was a former UFC fighter with an
8-3 record, and is said to be an integral part of Fightful’s early days.
Sean Ross Sapp tweeted, “My heart is broken. A member of the Fightful family, the wonderful
Elias Theodorou has passed. He was always so wonderful, real, positive and uplifting.
Such a helpful, knowledgeable, great guy. Was so fortunate to get to know him. He's
going to be missed so much.” Our thoughts are with the family, friends,
and co-workers of Elias Theodorou.