CM Punk disliked beloved star in AEW; real reason revealed - Reports

A veteran wrestling journalist has shed some light on CM Punk reportedly not getting along with a popular AEW star and executive. The latter, Christopher Daniels, retired from in-ring competition earlier this year.

The Straight-Edge Superstar's All Elite Wrestling run ended in disastrous fashion in 2023, as he was fired for picking a backstage fight with Jack Perry at All In : London. Around a year prior to that, the former AEW World Champion made headlines due to his locker-room skirmish with Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks on the infamous "Brawl Out" night. The incident led to all parties involved being suspended, although Punk would be brought back later on the inaugural episode of Collision.

The Best in The World was supposedly a major creative force behind the early days of the Saturday-night show, and prior reports have hinted at his formidable behind-the-scenes power, which even allowed him to ban certain All Elite names from Collision tapings. This supposedly included Christopher Daniels, despite the fact that the latter was AEW's Head of Talent Relations. Dave Meltzer alluded to this arrangement recently on X/Twitter while responding to fan speculations on CM Punk's backstage authority in All Elite Wrestling.

"He was considered the unofficial showrunner for Collision and to keep him happy if he didn't want someone at the tapings, they made arrangements they weren't. People he didn't like who had ROH matches were taped on Wednesday even though at the time Saturday was ROH taping night. Daniels was one of the names on the list even though he doubled as talent relation head."

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In another tweet, Meltzer clarified that Punk's issues with The Fallen Angel could have stemmed from Daniels' close friendship with The Young Bucks.

"Daniels was a longtime friend of the Young Bucks."

Punk was fired by All Elite Wrestling following an internal investigation conducted by the company's disciplinary committee in the wake of his fight with Jack Perry at All In 2023. Soon afterwards, he returned to WWE at that year's Survivor Series.

CM Punk and another ex-AEW name became title holders in WWE recently

This past weekend, WWE hosted the latest edition of Saturday Night's Main Event in Salt Lake City, Utah. A number of former AEW stars were featured in action on the PLE. Two of them, Jade Cargill and CM Punk, won big, as they respectively captured the WWE Women's Championship and the World Heavyweight Championship by defeating Tiffany Stratton and Jey Uso in their respective matches.

Also on SNME, Cody Rhodes retained his Undisputed WWE Title against Drew McIntyre. Unfortunately, neither Rusev nor Penta (both former All Elite Wrestling names) were able to unseat Dominik Mysterio in their triple threat bout over the Intercontinental Championship.

Edited by Anurag Mukherjee