Bobby Fish reflects on 2021 AEW match with CM Punk
Bobby Fish says he’s not expecting to receive a Christmas card or birthday card from CM Punk.
Fish posted a video on Wednesday addressing his infamous match with Punk from October 27, 2021 in AEW. The match went a little under 13 minutes and saw Punk win with a GTS, though it appeared Fish got his shoulder up right at three. Punk was declared the winner and the broadcast ignored that Fish may have had his shoulder up.
Fish reflected on the match almost five years to the day on his YouTube channel. He praised Punk as a wrestler, but was critical of how Punk performed in the UFC and how that reflected on wrestling.
Fish said:
“I remembered him from my days coming up that when he went out and just wrestled, he was actually a decent wrestler. A pretty marginal athlete. I think he was very awkward, but as just a pro wrestler, I didn’t think he was bad.”
“Where I thought he dropped the ball quite a bit was when he attempted to do more of a martial arts based thing, which him coming back to pro wrestling after the years of being away, I was actually a little surprised that that’s what he was coming back with because when he fought in the UFC, I think he represented our sport pretty poorly.”
As Fish has mentioned in previous interviews about the finish of the bout, he says Punk gave him an “iggy” or just a little squeeze right before the pin, which led to a miscommunication.
Fish continued:
“There’s different kinds of iggies, as crazy as that sounds. But the iggy that I got in that moment was as if he was trying to get my attention.”
“There was not a lot of time to think about this. So it was like do or don’t do, and I did, and what I did was kick out, knowing, okay, if this wasn’t what the intention was, pick me up and hit your move again, or whatever you want to do.”
Fish says after the match, he got to the back and saw Punk and Tony Khan talking while looking at him. He approached them but both left. He then went to Punk’s locker room to discuss what happened.
“I gave him the opportunity to air whatever grievances he might have had. He continued to say over and over, ‘No, it’s fine. It’s fine.’ Meanwhile, the way that he was saying what he was saying, it was obvious that things were not fine.”
“I guess my claim to Phil would be, ‘Own your part of it. You iggied me.’ I don’t know why, but I guess it’s neither here nor there. I didn’t do it to go into business for myself. It was a misunderstanding, and misunderstandings happen, especially in any competitive line of work.”
Fish continued to say that a little while after the match, him and Kyle O’Reilly were involved in a backstage angle with FTR, and Dax Harwood was “working snug” with him so he worked snug back. This led to a confrontation in the back.
“Things were heated in the locker room. There was a couple instances of potentially Dax and I heading out to the parking lot.”
Fish says he was later approached by Punk in the back about his conflict with Harwood.
“it was a very like locker room leaderesque role that maybe (Punk) bestowed upon himself, but for me, he was not a leader. So when he said whatever he was saying to me, I let him know that I’m not interested. He took what seemed like offense to that.”
“I don’t think I’m gonna get a Christmas card from him this year or a birthday (card) and that’s unfortunate.”
Fish’s AEW contract expired in August 2022 and was not renewed. His full YouTube video is available below:
Ian Carey is a writer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, whose work has been featured in NOW Magazine, The Huffington Post, and more. A lifelong wrestling aficionado born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, he has covered the industry for a decade and a half. He joined the f4wonline.com team in 2019.