Ryan Nemeth sent complaint to AEW executives about CM Punk harassment & threats

Image: AEW

In a document obtained by Fightful, former AEW wrestler Ryan Nemeth filed a complaint with several executives in which he claimed he suffered abuse, harassment and threats while with the company, specifically from CM Punk, and that AEW didn’t do anything about it.

According to the outlet, a timeline was provided by Nemeth in the complaint in addition to a claim of emails, texts, phone call logs and other records to back up his statements. The main issue was AEW’s lack of response to any of the incidents he allegedly had with Punk and where he instead was “ordered to to verbally antagonize” the now-current WWE star on TV.

The report stated he was seeking changes to AEW’s policies and financial consideration he claimed was offered to him in exchange for an NDA following the timeline he provided, the information of which is below. The report also says the complaint was sent in September, assumed to be 2023 while he was still employed.

Nemeth has been appearing in TNA Wrestling as of late with the report stating he spoke to Tony Khan and others in AEW earlier this year. Nemeth wasn’t interested in returning despite Khan entertaining the idea.

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Here’s some of the dates and incidents Nemeth outlined, according to Fightful. All dates are in 2023 unless otherwise indicated:

• On April 16th, Nemeth claimed he contacted former chief legal officer Megha Parekh with concerns he would be targeted by Punk.
• On June 21st, Nemeth claimed that Punk threatened him in a locker room (apparently due to Nemeth’s infamous “softest wrestler alive” tweet), also stating Parekh, the Young Bucks and Tony Schiavone showed him empathy for the incident. He wasn’t booked to wrestle for two months and said Jon Moxley supported him, claiming Moxley said the situation “didn’t sit right with him.”
• On July 17th, Nemeth again contacted Parekh about a lack of response to the alleged locker room incident and felt he had been “silently fired” due to speaking up which Parekh assured him wasn’t the case. He was concerned his per-date contract wouldn’t be renewed.
• On August 12th, Nemeth arrived in Greensboro, North Carolina, for Collision and was told to go home — an incident that was previously reported. The situation was initially said by Pat Buck to be simple travel confusion before he later told Nemeth that Punk didn’t want him there.
• After calling Parekh again and requesting for AEW to do something, Nemeth said he was flown to a Wednesday, August 16th Dynamite and told to cut a promo in front of the live crowd where he would “verbally antagonize” Punk.
• He then met with both AEW HR and legal on that same day and was unsatisfied with their response.
• He was one of the people that spoke to outside counsel as part of the investigation AEW launched after Punk and Jack Perry’s backstage fight before All In.
• Nemeth last worked for AEW on November 18th and his contract expired this past March.

The report stated that Chris Peck of AEW’s legal team reached out to work out a settlement for approximately three years salary in exchange for an NDA following the submission of the timeline (assumed to be in September 2023 while he was still with the company.) Nemeth said he was interested and wanted to discuss it more before being told it was pulled off the table for reasons that are unclear.

He also claimed Peck (who took over for Parekh, along with Margaret Stalvey) threatened to sue him about the timeline at one point and that Peck said he would be placed in an “antagonistic position to Megha” if the situation went to arbitration.

AEW has yet to publicly comment on the report.