Why did CM Punk spend nine months away from AEW? Was it because he suffered a shoulder injury at All Out that required surgery and forced Tony Khan to vacate the AEW World Championship? Or maybe it was because of his Brawl Out in the locker room with The Elite – Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson, and Nick Jackson – after the show that left all four performers plus Ace Steel suspended indefinitely? Was it how he acted and reacted during the show's media scrum, which painted the company in a very “bush league” manner?

While all three of those incidents individually certainly played into a lengthy stay off of television, the real seed that lead to the “Fall of Punk” turning into a weird, ugly mess routinely joked about by non-fans was Punk's decision to call out “Hangman” Adam Page in his first promo back to “offer him a title shot” – despite the Cowboy not even being in the arena – in order to shame the former AEW World Champion for seemingly no reason in particular.

… until now.

That's right, taking part in his first formal interview since All Out 2022, Punk explained to Marc Raimondi of ESPN why he had beef with Page and how that lingered into the future, when he decided to call him out upon returning from injury in August.

“And I proceed to have what I think is a garbage match because I'm trying to protect myself on stuff instead of actually just working and trying to put on the best performance I can,” CM Punk told ESPN. “I'm keeping an eye out. He chopped me in the mouth one time, and I'm just like, ‘OK, did you do that on purpose?' You chip my tooth, and I'm like, ‘All right, should I give him a receipt?' It changes the dynamic. It poisoned everything for me, and it made it all really, really ugly, and that was what set all of this off, and here we are over a year later and ain't s— been done about it.”

Now, as most fans already know, Punk and Page have only wrestled once and once only in an AEW ring or any other ring for that matter, with their bout at Double or Nothing 2022 generally considered pretty good, as its 4.5-star rating from Dave Meltzer clearly proves. Still, if Punk took that big of an issue with how the Page worked in the match, with his tooth apparently getting chipped due to a poorly placed chop, it makes sense that he would be angry and maybe even warrant a receipt for his actions. Still, calling him out a few months later without any way for Page to follow through on his challenge poisioned the situation even further and left the promotion with a powder keg ready to blow at any moment.

CM Punk reveals his interaction with Tony Khan after All Out.

Elsewhere in his interview with Marc Raimondi, CM Punk also revealed what took place in his conversations with Tony Khan after All Out and how it eventually led to his return to AEW.

Though Punk asserted that he attempted to deal with his issues privately before taking them to the public forum, even he can see that he handled things poorly in the moment.

“The first thing I said to Tony when I sat down with him and spoke to him after it was, ‘Man, I'm really sorry I put you in that position,'” Punk said. “I apologize for the scrum. But when you've watched that scrum, you're looking at a very, very frustrated guy who had told people. That's not the first time he heard all that. It's not the first time lawyers were told all that. And I was just looking for something to be done, and nothing got done. So, if you want something done right, you got to do it yourself. And I just didn't approach it in the right manner, but tension was high. I was very, very p*ssed. I pretty much knew that I had just injured myself again. I was hurt, and I was disappointed. Yeah, it's very easy for me to say I regret that, and I handled it the wrong way, 100%.”

Despite admitting that he handled things poorly, Punk doesn't believe that his fight with The Elite was as big of a deal as some folks have made it out to be, as teammates fight in other spots all the time, and rarely does it draw the same reaction as his interaction after All Out.

“I don't think what happened was a big deal…” Punk said. “This has happened in the last 10 months in hockey, in basketball, in baseball, in just about every sport. And it's covered, and it's gone the next day. I think because I have injured my tricep and I've been out for so long, I think it has been exacerbated. I think it's been exacerbated by people spreading lies about the whole thing. And when, in reality, my attitude is, well, s**t happens.”

Is the third time the charm for CM Punk in AEW? Will he be able to become the sort of performer capable of carrying a Saturday night show based on his star power and become the sort of resounding star that TK is paying him to be? Or will it crash and burn to a spectacular degree? Either way, Punk is ready to give it another go, as throwing away everything he's done in the company over one small fight would be “a little silly.”

“I certainly had some low moments, and I won't rule out in those fleeting moments where I just say, ‘Ah, f**k this, whatever,'” Punk said. “But I don't ever think it was a serious intention to say that I'm done. There's still work to do, and I think I'm excited about a lot of stuff that's coming up. So, to just throw the baby out with the bathwater, just because of a little boo-boo, I think would be a little silly.”