When The Elite, Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks, took the ring for their second match in a Best of Seven series against Death Triangle, the Chicago crowd was absolutely ravenous. The boos borderline drowned out the sounds of “Carry on my Wayward Son,” the team's new AEW theme, chants of CM Punk erupted on more than one occasion, and after trying to play down the anger ever so slightly through the first segment of the match, even the commentary team of Excalibur, Taz, Tony Schiavone, and Don Callis had to acknowledge it.

Are The Elite AEW's answer to Shawn Michaels in Canada after the Montreal Screwjob? Well, if they weren't at the start of the match, they certainly were by the end of it, as Omega and The Jacksons, Nick and Matt, decided to spend the brunt of the bout running through a sort of greatest hits of CM Punk's time in AEW, with Omega hinting at the GTS before hitting it later in the match and Matt attempting a Buckshot Lariat only for him to fall on his behind much like “The Best In The World” did in his match with “Hangman” Adam Page.

Goodness gracious, Omega literally did his best Ace Steel impersonation and bit PAC on the arm in a picture that has already been repurposed as a meme.

So one has to wonder, what on earth did Punk, or at least Punk's camp, think about this match? Did they view it as three performers simply trying to draw business in a hostile territory? Or were the multiple hat tips in the match a way to make amends with the man they fought after All Out, or even as a way to hint at his possible return a few months down the line when he's fully healthy?

Well, according to none other than Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer, it sounds like Punk's people weren't all that excited about what went down in the ring.

“I know that there's people close to CM Punk that were, boy, they were not happy with that six-man tag match,” Meltzer said on Wrestling Observer Radio as transcribed by The Wrestling Observer's Ian Carey.

Is Meltzer correct? Is Punk genuinely disapproving of The Elite's not-so-genuine attempt at imitation being the sincerest form of flattery? Or could this be an example of AEW using the Kayfabe nature of professional wrestling to let it be known that Punk isn't happy about The Elite's antics to set another angle down the line? Either way, it's hard to imagine Tony Khan signed off on the spots unless he really wanted to make a point about Punk either in the positive column or in the negative column.

Kenny Omega's pre-AEW Dynamite comments look very confusing with hindsight.

Before Omega took the ring with the Young Bucks in Chicago, “The Best Bout Machine” sat down with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated to talk about his in-ring return and gave a very interesting response that seemed political at the time but now reads like borderline trolling.

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Matthew Jackson of the Young Bucks with a text bubble reading "We're trying to get this place back to what it was supposed to be" nexto to Nicholas Jackson of the Young Bucks and Jack Perry with the AEW logo as the background.

Matty Breisch ·

Tony Khan with a text bubble reading "Why!?" next to 2024 Jack Perry and the 2024 Young Bucks with the AEW Dynamite logo as the background.

Matty Breisch ·

Sheamus with a text bubble reading "You just threw it all away over a meme and a t-shirt?" next to Drew McIntyre with the CM Punk logo as the background.

Matty Breisch ·

“There are things no one can talk about, so I’d encourage people to let it go,” Omega said. “It doesn’t change that we want a team effort in AEW. I don’t even mean implicitly myself and my opponent. It also means the referee, the fans, the people who set up the ring, everyone–even a technical error can ruin the memory of a match. I can refer back to the exploding barbed wire death match. So I encourage people to move away from it because there is no information to be released. Though I cannot talk about it, I do want the fans to know I still want the best for pro wrestling.”

“This isn’t Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks against CM Punk. It is people trying to show off their craft. You can boo Kenny Omega, or the Young Bucks, or CM Punk, but I hope people don’t forget we’re human beings struggling to show our art.”

Alright, so Omega wanted to remind fans that this isn't The Elite versus CM Punk only to go on to thoroughly bury the “Straight Edge Savor” in the ring in his hometown when he couldn't even defend himself? Did Omega know he was going to bite PAC in their match on Dynamite, and this was a way to subvert expectations, or did the “Wayward Sons” decide to change it up just before the match and are now looking at another set of pink slips in their future to meet with Khan about their in-ring actions? Either way, this is certainly a story to follow.