More Backstage Details on Ryan Nemeth’s Complaint Against AEW, Incident With CM Punk

– As previously reported, details surfaced on former AEW wrestler Ryan Nemeth sending a complaint to the company in September stemming his AEW exit, which Nemeth claims was over his issues with former AEW wrestler CM Punk. Dave Meltzer reported additional details on the Nemeth topic during today’s Wrestling Observer Radio.

Nemeth’s complaint claims that he contacted AEW’s former legal rep, Megha Parekh, expressing concerns that he would be targeted by CM Punk stemming from comments he made about Punk via social media, referring to Punk as “the softest man alive.” Nemeth also alleges that he was threatened by Punk in the locker room on June 21, 2023. Nemeth says his comments on social media were part of an in-character post.

Meltzer stated that people told him about the June 23 dispute between Punk and Nemeth at the time. He stated, “A couple people had told me about it and then they were like, ‘Don’t worry, it’s all settled. It’s just a little disagreement.’ And then a couple days later, you know, I kind of heard that it’s anything but settled.”

Meltzer also shed more light on a previous incident at the AEW Collision TV tapings that took place in Summer 2023. The previous story of Christopher Daniels, Ryan Nemeth, and Matt Hardy being scheduled to work an early edition of AEW Collision, but were reportedly “sent home.” At the time, it was alleged that Punk did not want Daniels, who is also AEW’s head of talent relations, in the building because he perceives him as being on the side of The Elite over their past dispute that started about a year before.

Regarding this incident, Meltzer reports that Nemeth was at the hotel before Collision, where CM Punk saw him. This later resulted in Nemeth being told not to come to the arena for work because Punk did not want him at Collision. Meltzer stated, “First he was told, it was a miscommunication — a misunderstanding, and later he was told it was because Punk didn’t want him there.” Meltzer explained that at the time, “Punk was in Charge” and that “people were booking people without telling Punk.”

Ryan Nemeth also detailed in his complaint that AEW legal counsel Chris Peck communicated to him a settlement offer equating to three years’ salary contingent on an NDA. However, AEW reportedly pulled the offer after Nemeth said he wanted to discuss it. Meltzer reported that the settlement offer was pulled off the table because Punk was no longer with the company at the time. AEW terminated Punk both from his talent contract and his employment contract in early September 2023, stemming from a backstage incident that took place in August at AEW All In: London. Meltzer explained that AEW wanted all of this to “quietly go away.” He continued, “Once Punk was gone, they figured ‘ What’s the point’ of the NDA at that point.”

Nemeth’s complaint also alleged he was told by Pick that he’d “be placed in an antagonistic position to Megha if things ever escalated to arbitration.” He also claims that Peck threatened to sue him over sending his timeline of the incidents.

Meltzer also addressed this happening not long before Megha Parekh quietly departed from her role as AEW’s head of legal last year. Meltzer added, “To this day, nobody’s ever said what happened. She was just gone. And then there were people going like, ‘Oh, it’s football season. She’ll be back there after football season,’ but I knew wasn’t coming back after football season. I knew she was gone, and she never came back.” According to Meltzer, Parekh was “way up there” in the AEW power structure before her exit.

Meltzer added that it struck him when seeing CM Punk shake hands in the ring with Sami Zayn after competing together in WarGames at WWE Survivor Series, “I thought, you know what? If Punk hadn’t gotten so mad at [Colt] Cabana for going out to pizza with Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, the entire wrestling business would be different today. I don’t know what it would be, but it would be different.”

Meltzer indicates that the long-stemming heat and falling out between CM Punk and Colt Cabana was the catalyst of all of this, and it apparently started over Cabana going out for pizza with Zayn and Owens, who were still in WWE at the time. Punk was out of wrestling and the WWE, and was also in a legal dispute with WWE doctor Chris Amann over comments Punk made on Colt Cabana’s Art of Wrestling Podcast.

The following November after his termination from AEW, Punk would make his return to WWE in November 2023 at Survivor Series, appearing there for the first time in almost ten years.