Former WCW Champion lashes out at The Young Bucks for seemingly taking a dig at CM Punk (Exclusive)
The Young Bucks are back in AEW and are in the hunt for gold in the Jacksonville-based company. They won a spot in the finals of the AEW World Tag Team Championship after defeating Best Friends.
While cutting a promo on Dynamite, they referenced Jack Perry by calling out a moniker he goes by in NJPW, 'Scapegoat,' seemingly to troll CM Punk. Perry is under an indefinite suspension from AEW due to his scuffle with CM Punk backstage of AEW: All In last year.
The shoutout caught the attention of fans, and former WCW Champion and WWE head writer Vince Russo discussed it over at Sportskeeda Wrestling's The Wrestling Outlaws. He stated that wrestlers do this to get a "pop from the boys in the back."
"So much of what these wrestlers do, Chris, is to get a pop from the boys in the back. That's why they do the stuff they do in the ring, that's why they say the stuff, " he said.
He then spoke about the incident when The Young Bucks called out Punk.
"And again, Punk said, as part of the interview that you are about to talk about, Hangman Page, when they went in the back and Punk in front of them and said, 'Bro, what are you doing?' We went over that. What are you doing?' And Hangman turns around and says, 'Well, you know, you got my friend fired.' Okay, so he's clearing that to get over with the boys, bro. That he stuck up for so and so. So, it's the same... why else would they say that, bro? They say it so when they go in the back.' Ah, bro, you got him," he signed off. [1:40 - 2:37]
CM Punk joined AEW in 2021 and debuted on the AEW Rampage: The First Dance. There were rumors he had issues with the EVPs of the company, The Young Bucks. Later, in 2023, he had a scuffle with Jack Perry at AEW: All In (Zero Hour), after Perry trolled Punk during his match with HOOK for the FTW Championship by taking a suplex off the roof of a car, especially when Punk and AEW had disallowed him to use real glass in a spot on a previous episode of Dynamite.
Tony Khan thought CM Punk and Young Bucks' issue was like the Bret 'the Hitman' Hart - Shawn Michaels feud
In retrospect, there were some indications that CM Punk and Young Bucks' issues would flare up. Dave Meltzer revealed on Wrestling Observer Network (WON) that he had spoken to Tony Khan, and told him about the issues between the Second City Saint and the two-time AEW Tag Team Champions. However, Khan had something else in mind.
"That is an issue; even a night before Brawl Out, Garrett and I talked to Tony [Khan], and we brought this up, he thought it was cool! I don't know if it was like Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels thing, but that's what he said. He says, 'You like a little tension where fans don't know if it's real or not!' He answered that, but I brought it up because I sure as hell knew there were problems," Dave said. [H/T: WrestleTalk]
With CM Punk and Jack Perry out of the company, it remains to be seen what wrestlers will achieve by calling them out on programming.