As 2022 comes to a close, folks are beginning to recap the year and discuss the biggest developments across the professional wrestling world. From Roman Reigns' time atop the WWE Universe, to the announced return of Kenny Omega to New Japan Pro Wrestling, and even the return of Ring of Honor, no story has dominated the headlines, not even Sasha Banks and Naomi walking out of RAW, as much as the “Brawl Out” after AEW All Out between The Elite, Kenny Omega, and the Young Bucks, versus CM Punk and Ace Steel.
Though none of the principal members of the backstage fight have spoken out on the interaction publically, largely because they are locked into non-disclosure agreements, that hasn't stopped folks from issuing confidential statements to reports and for auxiliary members of the AEW roster telling fans what they heard about the fight, its lead-up, and the fallout.
Asked about the promo that initially drew heat with “Hangman” Adam Page heading into All Out on his FTR Podcast, Dax Harwood peeled back the curtain on the situation and delivered quite a few eye-popping admissions.
“After the promo segment, I went to Punk, and I said, ‘that was really good, that was a great segment.' They got the fans to react,” Harwood said via Fightful. “It's hard sometimes to get the fans to react to a babyface-babyface match. I thought it was a great segment. He was like, ‘Ahhh, I'm kind of feeling a certain way about it.' I had no inkling that anything went wrong or went sideways or anything like that.”
“To be honest, I don't really know Adam Page very well, we worked together once on the North Carolina Indies. I don't know him very well, but I don't think so and I didn't think so. I didn't have that notion of him. He's a family man, he loves his wife, he just had a newborn, he's always pleasant and polite to me. We always talked and get along. Even after the disagreements we've had with the Young Bucks, he and I have always talked and got along great.”
Whoa, whoa, whoa, “even after the disagreements we've had with the Young Bucks,” you say, now what does that mean? Though it never seemed like FTR and the Bucks were the best of friends or anything, with Harwood complaining about the whole #FTR movement before the tag team jumped from WWE to AEW, it has never been reported that they had any actual issues in AEW. That's crazy, right? Well, wait, it gets even more interesting.
Dax Harwood asserts that CM Punk didn't fully embrace his AEW booking.
A little later in their conversation, Harwood as was asked if Punk had any issues with the EVPs heading into All Out and let it slip that Punk wasn't particularly interested in the path Tony Khan chose to take as a booker.
“No, not at all,” Harwood said. “Punk was still so joyous and happy to be in the wrestling business. To be honest, he told me, when they were going to put the belt on him, that he didn't want the belt. He said, ‘I just want to have fun,' but he understood that Tony putting the belt on him would put AEW in a better light. He took it, begrudgingly a little bit, but he took the belt.”
Now that is interesting – while one would assume that Punk would be happy to hold the AEW strap, as it would serve as an exclamation point on his full-circle return to AEW, that, apparently, wasn't the case. Punk did seem incredibly happy whenever he was in the ring with his friends, from his one-night-only appearance as Surfer CM Punk in a trios match alongside Sting and Darby Allin to his far too infrequent trios action with FTR, which could have included a match at Forbidden Door had he not suffered a leg injury at the first Dynamite after Double or Nothing.
Wow, so between Punk not wanting to be champion, his ill-will towards “Hangman” Adam Page for his talk in the lead-up to their match at Double or Nothing, and clear issues with The Elite following their fight, there's basically no future where “The Best in the World” would be welcomed back into the AEW locker room, right? Can any amount of taking the boys out to dinner or buying female performers Starbucks gift cards change what he did and how he handled himself before it? Against it all, Harwood hopes that everyone can work it out, as AEW is a better place when all of its best stars are working.
“I can tell you what I hope, because I don't know,” Harwood said. “Everyone knows about the legalities of the situation and no one is really expressing what is going to happen, what has happened, and what won't happen. I can tell you, all I can be truthful about, I can only tell you what I know and what I perceive to know, I hope that he comes back. I feel that AEW should have the Young Bucks in their locker room. AEW should have Kenny Omega in the locker room. I know that I feel AEW should have CM Punk in the locker room. With those four entities, it makes our talent roster so much deeper and better. It's four guys who want to be the best. Regardless of what any of us think personally, I know that we all want to be the best and I know we all want the best for professional wrestling. It's given us a life that we could never have otherwise.”
“This is my plea to all four guys. Please find a way to make it work. If we can make it work, we can set up the future of professional wrestling for a long time and we can change the course of professional wrestling for a very long time. When you think about it, unselfishly, we're doing this for 20-30 years down the road so guys and girls can make a living.”
Would AEW ever welcome Punk back? Chris Jericho has made that seem unlikely in the past, but hey, in professional wrestling, anything is possible, as Punk's return after almost a decade away clearly proves. Bringing back Punk would likely play a major role in the return of FTR, who have been less than committal about re-signing with the promotion in the past, but then again, are three performers worth the morale of the entire locker room? Only time will tell, but Harwood's comments certainly make things more interesting, not less.
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