CM Punk’s Hangman Page callout on AEW Dynamite not planned

AEW World Champion CM Punk’s “coward” remark and callout of Hangman Page in the opening promo of Wednesday’s Dynamite was not planned, according to Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez on Wrestling Observer Radio.

“That was weird for everyone in that no one knew he was going to do that,” Meltzer said, later saying Punk vs. Page II is not planned for All Out.

After Punk’s acknowledgment of the Charleston, West Virginia, crowd, he said he had some important things and not so important things to take care of. He wanted to get the not so important thing out of the way and said he wanted to challenge someone from “around these parts” to a rematch. 

He then said, “Hangman Adam Page, you want that rematch? Let’s do it right here, right now.” He then sat in the middle of the ring as the crowd chanted, but Page’s music never hit and he never came out.

“My sentiments exactly. Now on to the important things. That’s not cowboy sh*t, that’s coward sh*t,” he said.

Meltzer reiterated that “there’s a lot of reality” to the issues they aired about each other during the build to Page vs. Punk at Double or Nothing. He later opined that there might have been something Page said during their promos that irked Punk to the point he wanted to air it during his first in-ring promo since getting injured.

Punk then moved on to interim champion Jon Moxley and after two pull-aparts during Wednesday’s show, the unification match was made for next Wednesday’s Dynamite instead of All Out which was a surprise move.

“Whatever they are going to do next week with the title match….Punk’s promo has absolutely zero, zilch to do with whatever they are doing at the PPV,” Alvarez said. “That was not supposed to happen. Punk went into business for himself and then moved on.”

Meltzer said they may build something from the comment, but that there is nothing between the men scheduled for All Out. As of now, Page has no match at the PPV as he declined to be part of the Trios title tournament.