CM Punk Says Hangman Adam Page Chipped His Tooth In Explosive ESPN Interview

The Summer of Punk has started early in AEW, and as advertised, it’s littered with drama.

Phil Brooks takes to drama like flies to feces, and as a parting shot before his long hiatus ends, CM Punk took part in a highly anticipated interview with ESPN. Prior to the interview’s release, Punk’s comments—particularly about Hangman Adam Page—reverberated throughout the AEW locker room and were said to upset several wrestlers.

AEW Collision debuts this Saturday with a returning CM Punk. But in addition to the baggage surrounding Punk, ticket sales for Collision in Canadian markets have been scary low while the United Center has moved just over 8,000 tickets in a building that holds over 23,000.

On Wednesday, several outlets reported Punk’s interview was said to have blurred the lines of his ongoing legal drama with AEW stemming from the now-infamous Brawl Out, when the former two-time AEW world champion cut a shoot promo at an AEW All Out media scrum. Despite sitting several feet away, AEW President Tony Khan was helpless to stop it. Fast forward to June, CM Punk hasn’t even touched a live mic yet and AEW is already forced into damage control.

“There was a lot of internal and external talk in recent days about an interview Punk did,” wrote Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

“Much of the talent at the 6/14 show (AEW Dynamite) were aware of the content and AEW was hoping that the comments Punk made about Adam Page would not be part of the article/video but the talent is largely aware of them. This is largely because the company is actively trying to sign Page to a new long-term deal. There was an attempt at damage control going on at press time but much of the talent was aware of what Punk originally said.”

Those comments on Page pertain to last year’s Double or Nothing main event between Punk and Page, which Punk called a “garbage match” and questioned whether Page was working stiff on purpose.

“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,” Punk told Marc Raimondi of 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.”

Punk later admitted he regrets how he handled himself at All Out, however he also asserts that he felt the need to take matters into his own hands.

“I apologize for the scrum,” said Punk. “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 pissed. 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%.”

Punk went on to insist that he has tried to have “a full-blown f—-ing sit-down powwow discussion with everybody about it,” but to no avail.

Tony Khan has since moved heaven and earth trying to bring Punk back, with the polarizing star embroiled in one dramatic episode after another along the way. Punk has not appeared on AEW programming since September 2022. In that time, Punk has lashed out on Instagram stories. Twice. Targets of Punk’s wrath include the wrestling media and Chris Jericho. The only difference between Punk’s rants on Instagram and his All Out shoot promo was his IG rants were either deleted or disappeared after 24 hours.

Similar to his infamous All Out tirade, however, the footage will live forever online.

In April, Punk randomly showed up backstage at WWE during a Raw taping in Chicago before reportedly being kicked out at the behest of Vince McMahon. Despite Tony Khan rewarding Punk’s erratic behavior with Punk’s own television show on Saturday nights, the rollout of AEW Collision has been messy caked in controversy.

Shortly before AEW Collision was announced at the Warner Bros Discovery upfronts, AEW was forced to remove Punk from the graphics and press release as the two sides encountered yet another hangup, this time reportedly stemming from the employment status of Punk’s friend—and Brawl Out culprit—Ace Steel. After Punk’s likeness was deleted faster than one of his Instagram stories, Khan had to delay his nationally televised announcement of CM Punk until the following week, when the two parties mercifully came to an agreement.

Though CM Punk will continue to be a lightning rod within the AEW locker room, he is not without his supporters. It is believed AEW will be forced to split its rosters so Punk and The Elite (Hangman Adam Page, Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks) do not appear on the same shows. Punk name-dropped up-and-coming talent like Powerhouse Hobbs and Ricky Starks, who defended Punk last year as a “great locker room guy.” Former AEW Women’s world champion Jamie Hayter also came to Punk’s defense in a recent interview.

“From my experience with him, he was always very, very pleasant,” Hayter told Metro.co.uk.

“Very helpful, and I always had really great conversations with him about wrestling. He’s a wealth of knowledge because he’s been in the business for so long, and he’s got extensive experience.”

“You’d kind of be a fool to not want to pick his brain and not want to work with the guy. He knows what he’s doing!”

CM Punk returns to AEW programming on the debut of AEW Collision on Saturday, June 17 at 8 p.m. EST/7 p.m. central on TNT.