• Home
  • Movies
  • Music
  • TV
  • Video Games
  • Wrestling
  • Topics
  • Latest Comments on Cult of Whatever
Search
Cult of Whatever logo
  • Movies
    Featured
    • The Living Daylights: Timothy Dalton as James Bond

      The Living Daylights is still awesome, thirty-five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 28, 2022
      Movie Blogs
    Recent
    • The Muppet Christmas Carol: Michael Caine as Scrooge

      The Muppet’s Christmas Carol remains the gold standard for the book

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 20, 2022
    • Nightmare Before Christmas 1993 1

      2022’s Christmas Movie Watchlist!

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 18, 2022
    • Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio Poster

      REVIEW: GDT’s Pinocchio is my favorite film of the year!

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 14, 2022
    • Troll: Ine Marie Wilmann as Nora

      REVIEWS: TROLL and TROLL HUNTER -A giant creature double feature!

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 5, 2022
    • Harry with The Hendersons

      Harry and the Hendersons is still awesome, thirty-five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 1, 2022
    • Fantastic Four Poster

      The five best “rogues galleries” in superherodom! (part 3)

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 28, 2022
  • Music
    Random
    • Elvis Stamp

      Elvis's 40 Year Reign (1976-Tomorrow)

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 29, 2017
      Music Blogs
    Recent
    • The Beatles: Get Back

      What GET BACK reveals about the Beatles

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 15, 2021
    • Simon And Garfunkel at Feyenoord Stadium in Rotterdam1982

      The Boxer is a song about being conned

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 4, 2021
    • Lady Gaga: Chromatica Album Cover

      Lady Gaga’s discography is totally out of order

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 3, 2021
    • Michael Jackson Thriller Album Cover

      Thirty years ago music fans said “Nevermind” to Michael Jackson

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 21, 2021
    • Queen II Album Cover

      On Queen’s The Miracle, and the importance of track ordering

      By Matthew Martin
      | February 16, 2021
    • Linda Paul Mccartney 1976

      50 years ago, McCartney dropped “Lennon” and went solo…

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 5, 2020
  • TV
    Featured
    • Big Sky S03e05: Kylie Bunbury, J. Anthony Pena and Katheryn Winnick as Cassie Dewell, Mo Poppernak and Jenny Hoyt

      Big Sky S03E05 Review: Flesh and Blood - Glamping!

      By Salome G
      | October 22, 2022
      TV Blogs
    Recent
    • Big Sky S03e10: Gang

      Big Sky S03E10 Review: A Thin Layer of Rock – Break time…

      By Salome G
      | December 11, 2022
    • Rick And Morty: S01e03

      Is Beth from Rick and Morty a bigger sociopath than Rick?

      By Jason Collins
      | December 7, 2022
    • Big Sky S03e09: Dedee Pfeiffer and Cree as Denise and Emily

      Big Sky S03E09: Where There’s Smoke There’s Fire – Stalling

      By Salome G
      | December 1, 2022
    • The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special: Dave Bautista and Pom Klementieff as Drax and Mantis

      REVIEW: The GOTG Holiday Special is a sweet prelude to next year’s finale

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 27, 2022
    • The Midnight Club S01: The Gang

      The Midnight Club S1 Review – A series of unfortunate events

      By Salome G
      | November 24, 2022
    • Big Sky S03e08: Reba McEntire as Sunny Barnes

      Big Sky S03E08 Review: Duck Hunting – I love a weirdo.

      By Salome G
      | November 19, 2022
  • Video Games
    Featured
    • Arkham Knight

      Batman: Arkham Knight - A fitting end to a trilogy

      By Tom Farr
      | July 18, 2015
      Video Game Reviews
    Recent
    • Splatoon 3 Screenshot

      A trio of Nintendo Switch reviews!

      By Matthew Martin
      | September 28, 2022
    • Nintendo Switch Logo

      Looking ahead to the Switch 2: Predictions and Wants

      By Matthew Martin
      | August 15, 2022
    • Legend Of Zelda

      Can a Legend of Zelda movie work?

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 6, 2022
    • Super Mario 64

      Which system had the better launch: A battle of four Nintendo consoles

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 1, 2021
    • Luigi's Mansion

      Happy twentieth to Nintendo’s underrated gem, the Gamecube

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 18, 2021
    • Metroid Dread

      Metroid Dread – Post Game analysis and sequel needs

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 29, 2021
  • Wrestling
    Featured
    • AEW All Out 2022: Keith Lee. Anthony Bowens, Max Caster and Billy Gunn

      AEW All Out 2022 - Review and (wild) Speculation!

      By Matthew Martin
      | September 5, 2022
      AEW
    Recent
    • article placeholder

      Which Is Better AEW vs WWE?

      By Coder
      | September 29, 2023
    • article placeholder

      Which Female Wrestler Leaves WWE?

      By Coder
      | September 29, 2023
    • article placeholder

      Which WWE Wrestler Had a Heart Attack?

      By Coder
      | September 29, 2023
    • article placeholder

      Which WWE Legend Recently Died?

      By Coder
      | September 29, 2023
    • article placeholder

      Which WWE Game Has the Best Story Mode?

      By Coder
      | September 29, 2023
    • article placeholder

      Which GM Should I Pick WWE 2K22?

      By Coder
      | September 29, 2023
  • Topics
    • site logo
    Latest
    • Which Is Better AEW vs WWE?
    • Which Female Wrestler Leaves WWE?
    • Which WWE Wrestler Had a Heart Attack?
    • Which WWE Legend Recently Died?
    • Which WWE Game Has the Best Story Mode?
    • Which GM Should I Pick WWE 2K22?

    AEW All Out Fall Out: All the CM Punk drama that’s fit to print!

    By Matthew Martin
    | September 5, 2022
    AEW

    In our review of All Out 2022, I made this remark:

    MJF, Punk and all of AEW Dynamite will be in Buffalo, NY this coming Wednesday. It’s not exactly MJF’s hometown, but it is more his region than Chicago. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that MJF is cheered like Stone Cold in 98 and Punk is showered with a litany of “Colt-Ca-ba-na, clap-clap-clapclapclap” chants. Why would people chant that at CM Punk? Well…

    So here we are.

    AEW All Out 2022: CM Punk

    Punk regained the AEW world title and then, after the show, sat down to talk with the media for AEW’s regular post-PPV “media scrum.” The first thing out of his mouth, before a question was even asked, was in regards to whether or not the person called on to ask the first question was friends with Scott Colton (Colt Cabana). What followed was a multi-minute tirade from the new champion, as he unloaded on the EVPs of the company (Young Bucks, in particular), calling them children who spread rumors online and get in other people’s (his) business. He also attacked Hangman Page, with whom he feuded for the title back in May, during which Page declared he was wrestling to save AEW from the likes of Punk. Page is close with the members of the Dark Order (Cabana included) so the tension between them was bound to become an issue.

    After the scrum…a scrum happened.

    What’s the deal?

    Here’s the timeline as I know it:

    Cm Punk Elimination Chamber 2013

    Punk walked out on WWE back in 2014 in the run-up to WrestleMania 30. This we all know very well. He soon went on a podcast hosted by his then-friend Colt Cabana. On that podcast he made some disparaging remarks about WWE’s in-house doctor. The doctor sued Punk and Cabana. Cabana’s lawyer (also Punk’s) eventually dropped him from representation. Cabana has a tenth of the money Punk has and asked for help paying the bills. Apparently, an agreement was reached, but here’s where the story diverges depending on who you believe…

    1. One side says Punk refused to pay.
    2. The other side says Punk agreed but then Cabana kept coming back asking for more until Punk cut him off.

    Either way, at some point, Cabana sued Punk for 200k in legal fees plus another million in punitive damages.

    Now, whether he sued because Punk never helped or because he didn’t help enough, etc, I don’t know, but at that point, the gloves were off and here we are. All of this is a decade old at this point, by the way. After that, Cabana continued working small time and Punk basically left the wrestling spotlight altogether. AEW eventually started up and Cabana joined, instantly hitting it off with the locker room and becoming a mentor to a lot of the younger guys. Later, Punk returned and immediately Cabana disappeared from AEW TV. He was no longer featured in Dark Order matches. He slowly disappeared from BTE’s youtube sketches.

    Just like that: Nothing. He basically vanished.

    Naturally, people talk, wonder, question, etc, as you’d expect. One persistent rumor to explain it all was that Punk insisted that Tony fire Colt but that Tony instead compromised by moving him to ROH. This rumor was said to have been started by The Elite (Bucks, Page, Omega, or some combination of the group). To be clear, they haven’t actually said anything in their defense, but others have denied it on their behalf.

    That’s the timeline, but it doesn’t take into account the fact that Punk is an insecure, bitter, primadonna who has never met a friend he wasn’t prepared to drop like a hot potato and loudly hate for the rest of his life at the slightest insult. Nor does it take into account the history of the Elite to be passive-aggressive on Twitter and through other social media channels (and online dirtsheets) to complain about people or things they don’t like.

    Long story short: Tony signed Punk and Brian Danielson almost back to back a year ago. If you ask me, he should have just signed Danielson and given him Punk’s “face of the company” push.

    But we’re past that now.

    So much of this is floating around the rumor mill. No one is on record. Facts and fiction are blurred in all the worst ways associated with pro wrestling. How much of this is real, how much is exaggerated to make it into work, and how much is exaggerated just because people tend to do that? I have no clue.

    What I do know is, if it comes down to sides being taken and ultimatums being acted upon, my stance is this: Punk is the more expendable commodity vs the Elite if worse comes to worst. I also greatly suspect Tony Khan is too much of a fanboy to make the hard choices here. People are going to have to resolve this themselves and Punk doesn’t have the personality to do that. He never has. I loved the guy a decade ago but even then I knew he had the temperament of a petulant child and has no concept of “forgive and forget” when he feels wronged.

    AEW Double or Nothing 2022: CM Punk

    I think there is a lot of blame to go around, and I think multiple things can be true all at once:

    1. The Elite act like children and don’t address issues with people directly until it’s too late. Instead, they passive-aggressively leak stuff to Meltzer and the like which has caused problems with the older-school guys in the locker room.
    2. CM Punk, right or wrong, went way too far with his comments at the scrum. He is also a noted (and self-admitted) jerk. He should have responded at a more appropriate time in a more appropriate way.
    3. Tony Khan has no control over his locker room and probably could have or should have addressed this or diffused it way before now. He was way too passive while Punk sat next to him and went off on one of the most popular guys in his locker room.

    It’s also worth pointing out that a big part of AEW’s appeal to potential wrestlers has been that their locker room was a favorable work environment vs the stresses and politics of WWE’s. Now Punk has thrown a grenade in that narrative at the exact moment WWE is in the middle of completely turning their work environment into a positive one under new management. Punk couldn’t have picked a worse time to go off on the Elite.

    While writing this article, a new report just dropped…

    According to multiple sources that lined up with some of Fightful’s reporting, there was a fight backstage afterward with Punk allegedly starting things by swinging fists at the Bucks’ Matt Jackson. Punk trainer/friend and AEW producer Steel (part of the storyline that got Punk into Sunday’s Jon Moxley match) threw a chair that hit the Bucks’ Nick Jackson in the eye. Steel (Chris Guy) allegedly bit Omega and grabbed his hair.

    Is that true? Who knows. If it’s not then someone recently watched the fight scene in Anchorman, because that sort of cartoonish insanity is exactly what that sounds like. If it’s true then you have to AT LEAST fire Steel and probably at least suspend Punk. If you can get him to do the job to MJF in three weeks at Grand Slam and then suspend him, that’s all the better. Three weeks is a long way away, though. So, as I said at the beginning:

    MJF, Punk and all of AEW Dynamite will be in Buffalo, NY this coming Wednesday. It’s not exactly MJF’s hometown, but it is more his region than Chicago. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that MJF is cheered like Stone Cold in 98 and Punk is showered with a litany of “Colt-Ca-ba-na, clap-clap-clapclapclap” chants.

    Dynamite this Wednesday is going to be a must-see for all the wrong reasons.

    Tony Khan needs to get his house under control, asap.

    Tags

    CM Punk

    You might also like

    • Cody Rhodes is gone from AEW. What does that mean for wrestling?

      By Matthew Martin
      | February 16, 2022
    • In buying ROH, AEW has a chance to redo history (the right way)

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 14, 2022
    • Resolving the AEW has too much talent and not enough TV argument

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 25, 2021

    FIND THE TOPICS YOU WANT...

    Wrestling Topics

    Recommended for you

    • Was 2022 the wildest year in wrestling history?

      By Matthew Martin
      | January 4, 2023
    • The future of the AEW World Championship

      By Matthew Martin
      | August 14, 2022
    • Vince McMahon is out as WWE chief. First reactions here…

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 22, 2022
    • Getting AEW to the next level…

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 29, 2022
    • Your WAY TOO EARLY predictions for WWE WrestleMania 39!

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 20, 2022
    • The Curse of the WWE Royal Rumble

      By John Hancock
      | January 27, 2012
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Affiliate Disclosure
    • Cookie Policy and Settings
    • Terms of Use
    • Photo Credits
    • RSS
    All Cult of Whatever articles, logos, illustrations and graphics are copyright CultOfWhatever.com. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. © 2023 CultOfWhatever. All Rights Reserved.
    • facebook
    • twitter