There has certainly been no love lost between Bobby Fish and CM Punk.
Following the duo’s match in October 2021 on AEW Dynamite, Fish claimed that Punk exhibited some not-so-friendly behavior toward him backstage, describing him has a “c*nt.” It was what happened on-screen though, that originally caught the attention of professional wrestling fans. At the conclusion of the bout, CM Punk landed his signature GTS finisher, which clutched the pinfall victory over Fish. In a strange move though, Fish kicked out a millisecond after the referee had already completed the three count.
Fish later explained his actions during an interview with Wrestling Headlines. There, he believes a moment of confusion contributed to the match ending. CM Punk performed an ‘iggy,’ usually signaling thanks to one’s opponent. However, Punk seemingly did it before the three count had concluded, which Fish interpreted as a notion for the two to quickly “change something” in their match.
AEW star Dax Harwood recently shared his thoughts on the kickout and Fish’s reasoning for it. “I have been after taking I’ve taken many pins in my career, obviously, and I have got the squeeze, and the squeeze to me means thank you,” he said on the FTR with Dax Harwood podcast. “That’s what I think, and that’s what I was taught. Maybe Bobby was taught different. I don’t know.”
“I’m just a small-town southern boy who worked with Ricky Morton and George South and all these guys,” he continued. “That’s just what I was taught. Maybe they were taught something different. I mean, to be fair, the squeeze means a lot of different things. I would just never take it as, ‘Hey, kick out.’ That’s just me.”
The IWGP Tag Team Champion also mentioned a “little flare-up” he had with Fish previously. “There was an issue that he and I had on live TV where I felt that he was taking advantage of me and things got very, very, very, very heated on stage. I accidentally also punched Kyle [O’Reilly] because I thought Kyle was getting involved as well. We got to the back, we had to be separated,” Harwood said. “Then 30 minutes later, we apologize. We hugged and we were good.”
Despite the heated moment, Harwood said Bobby Fish was a “great guy to me. We get along personally,” both before and after it.
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