CM Punk Did Not Pressure Tony Khan To Change Finish At AEW Double Or Nothing 2022
Contrary to a recent rumor being floated online, CM Punk was apparently not putting pressure on boss Tony Khan to be AEW World Champion. According to the Wrestling Observer, despite the backstage friction between then-champion "Hangman" Adam Page and Punk, the latter never went to Khan about changing the main event finish at Double or Nothing 2022.
Per the Observer, Punk winning was always set to happen at the pay-per-view, and was Khan's idea from the start. Khan wanted to make Punk the AEW World Champion relatively early in his run with the company, so the "Second City Saint" taking the belt off Page was seemingly always in the cards.
Something that, of course, wasn't a rumor was the friction between CM Punk and The Elite. Tension between Page and Punk became evident when during the build to Double or Nothing, Page reportedly went off-script about Punk and Colt Cabana, and Punk's relationship with Page became one of the major talking points during the infamous All Out media scrum. Punk didn't hold back on his thoughts regarding Page, calling him an "empty-headed dumbf***. Even before that, Punk went off-script on an episode of "AEW Dynamite," unexpectedly challenging Page to an impromptu world title match when the two's feud was on ice. Punk happened to break his foot following his first AEW World Championship win at Double or Nothing, and it was revealed after All Out, that Punk tore his triceps in his AEW World Championship win against Jon Moxley. He currently remains absent from AEW.