Anthony Bowens Opens Up About His Relationship With CM Punk

Newly-crowned AEW World Champion CM Punk may not be the most popular person backstage in AEW right now, but a member of The Acclaimed spoke about his relationship with "The Second City Saint" to Wrestling Inc. prior to Sunday's All Out event.

"I have a great relationship with Punk," Anthony Bowens said. "He was here a couple weeks in, I barely knew him at the time, and he just had wrestled a match, and he was taking the time out to pull Dante and I to his trailer to do tape study. He's been a resource since he's came. So I think he's been a good asset to the company, especially from an analytical point of view too, from all the money that he brings in and the ratings and such."

Punk made the headlines this weekend for different reasons, firstly by winning back the AEW World Championship at the All Out pay-per-view, and secondly for comments he made in the post-show media scrum — while sitting next to AEW CEO Tony Khan — which reportedly caused a skirmish moments after in the locker room. Punk started out his portion of the press conference by bashing his former friend Colt Cabana before turning his attentions to AEW's EVPs, Kenny Omega and Nick and Matt Jackson of The Young Bucks, labelling them "irresponsible." It's said that the reported post-media scrum fracas involved Punk, his friend Ace Steel, and Omega and The Bucks. Additionally, Punk also furthered his real-life spat with "Hangman" Adam Page during the media scrum. 

Tensions have reportedly been high behind the scenes in AEW recently, with Khan expressing the situation is "dicey" and "frankly challenging."

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