On Sunday, AEW sold out the Now Arena in suburban Chicago for its annual Labor Day pay-per-view, All Out. The show saw Toni Storm crowned the new interim Women’s champion, the surprise return of disgruntled loose cannon MJF (with a new, pricey theme song in “Sympathy for the Devil” by the Rolling Stones), an unexpected classic World Tag Title match, and CM Punk avenging his three-minute AEW World Championship loss several weeks ago on Dynamite by capturing the title in his hometown in a bloody brawl against Jon Moxley. It was an undoubtedly eventful show with a lot of very good wrestling, and an hour later nobody was talking about it at all.
What they were talking about was new champion CM Punk coming into the post-match press conference and angrily firing direct shots at his former friend Colt Cabana, former opponent Adam Page, and various executive vice presidents (EVPs), whom people assumed to mean the Young Bucks and Kenny Omega, who currently hold EVP positions within All Elite Wrestling. So what did he say? Why did he say it? And what does it mean?
CM Punk and Colt Cabana’s Falling-Out
Punk and Cabana both started training at the Steel Domain wrestling company in Pittsburgh at the same time; the “Steel” in the company’s name is from Ace Steel, who is a backstage producer in AEW and had been part of Punk’s story line leading up to the title match on Sunday. Punk and Cabana were both teammates and opponents in the earlier part of their career in the Midwest independent scene, and were stablemates in Ring of Honor as the Second City Saints with Ace Steel.
That close relationship fractured after Punk left WWE. Cabana hosted a pioneering wrestling podcast, Art of Wrestling, where he interviewed wrestlers about their art (think a pro wrestling version of WTF With Marc Maron). Cabana had Punk on after his departure from WWE, and he discussed his frustrations with his booking and usage. And more importantly, Punk accused WWE and one of its doctors, Chris Amann, of negligence. Punk said the company ignored a methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection, which he said ended up being life-threatening after WWE doctors loaded him up with Z-PAK and sent him out to wrestle, causing him to––as he said––“shit my pants on SmackDown.”
WWE and Amann sued both Punk and Cabana for defamation, a lawsuit Punk eventually won. The falling-out came when Cabana sued Punk, claiming that the wrestler had agreed to cover Cabana’s legal fees but reneged on the promise. Punk’s response was that Cabana was greedy and trying to extort him; lawsuits between the two were eventually settled.
The beef became news again in August 2021, when Punk joined AEW, where Cabana was employed as a member of the Dark Order. Cabana eventually stopped appearing as part of that team and was moved to the ROH roster. There were rumors published that Punk had asked for Cabana to be fired or transferred, rumors that Punk attributed to Adam Page, the Young Bucks, and Kenny Omega during his scorched-earth press conference on Sunday. Punk also made his first public statements in years about Cabana (né Scott Colton), during which Punk talked about not being friends with him anymore.
“My problem was I wanted to bring a guy with me to the top that did not want to see me at the top,” Punk said. “You can call it jealousy. You can call it envy. Whatever the fuck it is, my relationship with Scott Colton ended long before I paid all of his bills. I have every receipt. I have every invoice. I have every email. I have the email where he says, and I quote … ‘I agree to go our separate ways. I will get my own lawyer and you do not have to pay anymore.’ That’s an email that I have. The only reason the public did not see it is because when I finally had to countersue him through discovery we…
Read More: CM Punk’s AEW All Out Media Scrum Comments, Explained