WWE Star Makes CM Punk AEW Reference After SmackDown Backstage Fight

Published: Nov 23, 2024 by Jamie Toolan | Last Updated: Nov 23, 2024 by Jamie Toolan

Jamie has been covering the world of wrestling for four years and currently holds the position of Assistant Editor of WrestleTalk.com. During his time working for WrestleTalk.com he has written and published over 4,000 news and feature articles covering events and happenings from WWE, AEW, TNA and a variety of international and independent wrestling promotions.

WWE, AEW

A WWE star seemingly made reference to CM Punk’s time in AEW after getting into a tussle with Cody Rhodes on last night’s SmackDown.

After Kevin Owens and Cody Rhodes’ heated back-and-forth on SmackDown in Salt Lake City last night, the American Nightmare went backstage as cameras followed.

As Rhodes made his way past fellow SmackDown stars Carmelo Hayes and Giovanni Vinci, Hayes would make a remark echoing one of Owens’ verbal jabs at the Undisputed WWE Champion.

This led to Rhodes shoving the former NXT Champion, as the two men were held apart by WWE officials.

After the backstage fight, Hayes took to Twitter to drop a cheeky reference to CM Punk’s time in AEW.

Hayes wrote:

Ran into Cm Punk. Just gave me the best advice to never lose a backstage fight again #SmackDown

Punk was involved in two high profile backstage altercations during his two years in AEW, one with Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks after All Out 2022, and another at All In London 2023 with Jack Perry.

Another star who reportedly had a behind-the-scenes altercation of his own during his time in AEW was Andrade, with the SmackDown star seemingly dropping his own reference to an alleged fight with Sammy Guevara in October 2022.

Andrade wrote in response to Hayes’ post:

CM PUNK ES MI AMIGO!! #Tranquilo

Don’t forget you lost with me but you don’t need to feel bad because other kids too!!

A match between Hayes and Rhodes was announced for the following week’s SmackDown (November 29) following their backstage meeting.

Punk was a hot topic coming out of Friday’s SmackDown, as he made his WWE TV return in the closing segment involving The OG Bloodline and New Bloodline.

Being introduced by a returning Paul Heyman, Punk was revealed as the fifth man for Team OG Bloodline at WWE Survivor Series WarGames.

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