More details emerge on CM Punk/Ryan Nemeth AEW Collision June confrontation

More details emerged throughout Monday regarding both a June confrontation between CM Punk and Ryan Nemeth, and Nemeth’s booked/unbooking from Saturday’s AEW Collision in Greensboro, North Carolina.

The following are a hybrid of reports from Dave Meltzer, PW Torch, Fightful and Haus of Wrestling.

Nemeth was brought into Greensboro on Saturday and then was told he wasn’t needed, given his itinerary to return home. That was on the same night a pre-taped promo Hangman Page was brought in for was moved offsite rather than being done at the building, reported by Meltzer.

Later in the night, Punk threw verbal jabs at Page and unnamed others in an off-air promo.

Meltzer said on Sunday’s Wrestling Observer Radio that other talents have experienced the same treatment regarding Saturday bookings including Matt Hardy and head of talent relations Christopher Daniels. Fightful reported Monday that Isiah Kassidy was also booked and then unbooked with Hardy, but that was not this past Saturday.

In Monday’s daily update, Meltzer wrote that the Punk camp is claiming they didn’t get Page or Hardy removed from recent Collision events which is disputed by others.

The Nemeth situation

The general gist, according to Haus of Wrestling’s Nick Hausman, is “Punk is looking to keep drama out of the Collision locker room” which is where the Nemeth tweet comes into the equation. PW Torch’s Wade Keller also wrote that Punk is trying to keep things harmonious on Saturdays as “he is fiercely protective of Collision being a low drama environment, which is why he doesn’t want wrestlers he perceives as disloyal or too closely aligned with The Elite crew to be backstage at Collision.”

The crux of the issues between Punk and Nemeth stem from Nemeth’s “literally the softest man alive” tweet which came after Punk’s return promo on the debut of Collision. According to Keller, the aforementioned confrontation between Punk and Nemeth took place on the June 21st Dynamite in Chicago that Punk made a surprise appearance on.

The stories reported by Keller and Hausman diverge in terms of the veracity of the conversation, but both reported the two men shook hands in the end.

The Torch reported Punk “angrily and aggressively” confronted Nemeth while getting right in his face and asking if they needed to step outside. The “awkward and weird” conversation moved from a locker room to a hallway where the talk continued. Nemeth felt Punk was the one who shot first with his “counterfeit bucks” line in his return promo while Punk’s issue was how the tweet added to the existing perceptions of problems between himself and the Young Bucks. Nemeth questioned whether he should comment on any things Punk says on AEW TV to which Punk suggested he shouldn’t.

Conversely, Haus of Wrestling’s report was that Punk asked Nemeth to call him “soft” to his face which Nemeth declined to do. Punk said he felt Nemeth’s tweet was to try to gain favor with the Young Bucks for more TV time. The report had them agree no violence was necessary with Punk asking Nemeth “to stop tweeting negative things so everyone could start moving on from the negativity” — not just specifically about him.

Fightful’s reporting had elements of both stories, adding that, “It was confirmed to us that Punk didn’t want Nemeth on Collision, even eating in catering, much less wrestling on the show. It wasn’t clarified to us if that was because of his tweet or the relationship with the Elite. “

The Torch also reported that wrestlers are uneasy to speak out about Punk given his favor with AEW owner Tony Khan. They reported that Khan chanted “CM Punk!” while in the gorilla position after Punk made his return to AEW on the first Collision.

“The feeling backstage among wrestlers not in a position of power with a big contract is to lay low when it comes to Punk because you don’t want to be on what is essentially his enemies list,” Keller wrote.

The report that Daniels had been asked to not be at Collision was also clarified by Haus of Wrestling who wrote the reason was his involvement in the post-All Out fight between Punk, Ace Steel, Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks. According to Hausman, Punk asked that Daniels not be allowed backstage at Collision since Steel, who is working as a remote employee, was not allowed to return at Collision.