CM Punk’s Subtle Dig at AEW During WWE Raw – Did You Catch It?

Responding to earlier promises made on AEW television by company executives that The Best Guy would soon be returning to the company to continue his bitter and personal feuding with CM Punk, thus setting up even more pipe-bomb promo showdowns, the former AEW World Champion took a shot at his former boss during an explosive segment on the July 8th broadcast of WWE Raw. The Second City Saint, who was fired from AEW for physical altercation backstage, which was recorded and aired on AEW for ratings, didn’t fail to throw a punch at AEW after he entered the ring and started speaking.

Speaking truth to power, Punk’s blunt view of modern wrestling society entertained ‘Raw heads,’ though what he said and how he said it soon echoed across the wrestling world. He venomously got into a rivalry with Drew McIntyre for the setup of their memorable series with the Scottish Warrior. The atmosphere kept rising and with Punk’s experienced showmanship, and sarcasm, the crowd was hooked on their toes.

The most over-the-top step was Punk shifted his gaze to the hard camera, a signal familiar to the fans of wrestling as the greeting to anyone watching TV. In a moment of arrogance seen by the viewers, Punk commented, “There are people behind the camera.” Despite this canned response, which may not be understood by everyone, it was a direct shot at AEW’s long-standing issue with poor audience turnout.

I’ve officially lived long enough to CM Punk go from hating John Cena’s guts to seeing him give Cena his flowers on live television 😭😭 #WWERAW pic.twitter.com/kmQ87z5gIH

— Public Enemies Podcast (@TheEnemiesPE3) July 9, 2024

AEW has been the subject of criticism for weeks now regarding poor attendance in their programs, photos of almost empty arenas has been a common sight during Collision and Dynamite. Such visuals have become topical for discussion among wrestling fans; firstly, these are employed to analyze the situation in the promotion. Punk’s comment of ‘You allTECTED Source should know this and now you all get to watch in person’ was a direct reference to this point and underlined the disjointed crowd situation in AEW.

If this was said by any ordinary person, it would just be looked at as a joke but the fact that this came from a wrestler shows that the statement was quite deliberate. That Punk was able to insert such a cutting line into his promo and it not disrupt the story he is telling shows great promo work—the thing that has endeared Punk to fans and made him a target for criticism.