CM Punk calls out Chris Jericho, Dave Meltzer, AEW in since-deleted IG Story

CM Punk posted and deleted a message on his Instagram story that called out AEW, fellow wrestler Chris Jericho, and wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer.

CM Punk has not made an appearance in AEW since the All Out pay-per-view event, in which his much talked about press conference led to a fight between himself, Kenny Omega, the Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson), and then-trainer Ace Steel. Punk, Omega, and the Young Bucks were suspended, but Punk has not been back due to a triceps injury suffered in his AEW world title match against Jon Moxley. Months after the injury took place, fans have been wondering if he would be making a return to the company.

On Thursday, Punk posted a message on his Instagram story that called out AEW, wrestlers Jon Moxley and Chris Jericho, and wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer regarding a storyline last summer that saw Punk return from injury and lose an AEW world title unification match to Moxley in a squash on the Aug. 24, 2022 episode of Dynamite. Punk claimed that he wasn’t cleared to wrestle at the time.

That message has since been deleted.

"“SIGH. I wasn’t cleared to come back to wrestle yet,” h/t Cultaholic. “Then plan was to wrestle at the ppv. I sat and listened to Moxley’s Rocky Three idea. I explained how I’d never seen a Rocky movie. I and thought the idea sucked but if the boss wanted to do it whatever. He said he wouldn’t lose to me. I’d never experienced someone refusing to lose to me. I just laughed. I asked Tony if this was what he wanted. He said yes. He’s the boss so I said okay but I’d need to be cleared first. They kept saying it could just be a squash so I didn’t need to be cleared. I scoffed at that. My health is more important. Dave Meltzer is a liar. Jericho is a liar and a stooge. There were plans but plans always change but I’ll never put a company above my health ever again.”"

CM Punk calls out AEW, Chris Jericho and Dave Meltzer on deleted IG story

This apparently stems from a message that Meltzer posted on his Figure Four Weekly message board (subscription required), talking about the Punk vs. Moxley match last August, which you can view below, h/t Cultaholic.

"“Do you know why they didn’t advertise Punk vs. Moxley longer and why it had a short build? Because Punk agreed to it, then AEW got a legal letter saying he wasn’t down with it and wasn’t doing it and they didn’t know if he’d come until Tony put his foot down,” wrote Meltzer, h/t Cultaholic. “There are a lot of nice things I can say about him, and you can absolutely argue his position on Moxley was correct, but you can’t argue he willingly did what he was asked in that scenario.”"

Punk had won the AEW world title from “Hangman” Adam Page at the Double or Nothing pay-per-view event last May. Shortly afterwards, Punk suffered a broken foot, putting him on the sidelines. Moxley then won the interim title by defeating Hiroshi Tanahashi at Forbidden Door that June.

In August, Punk made his return and competed in a unification match against Moxley on the Aug. 24 episode of Dynamite. Moxley won in convincing fashion to officially unify both world titles. But over a week later, Punk defeated Moxley at All Out to regain the AEW world title.

This is the reference to Rocky III, which saw Mr. T’s Clubber Lang defeat Rocky Balboa easily by knockout for the heavyweight title. Of course, later on in the film, Balboa got his revenge and beat Lang in a rematch to regain the championship.

Later in the day, Punk did post another message on his Instagram, with a photo of actor Danny Glover’s character Roger Murtaugh from the Lethal Weapon movies with the caption reading “I’m too old for this s***.”

Jericho apparently responded to Punk’s deleted message on Instagram, with a GIF of a Matt Hardy doing the “DELETE” hand signal.

Punk has been sidelined since with the aforementioned triceps injury. In regards to the suspension over the backstage fight, Omega and the Young Bucks returned at the Full Gear event last November.

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