CM Punk was released by AEW on September 2 due to an incident that occured at AEW All In. According to AEW President Tony Khan, Punk endangered innocent people and Khan felt his life was in danger.
Hours after Punk's release, WWE superstar Zelina Vega tweeted a red X, which some people took as a support sign for Punk. The tweet did come in the middle of WWE Payback and Zelina was tweeting her support for Becky Lynch and Zoey Stark in the opening contest.
Speaking to Newsday, Vega confirmed her tweet didn't have to do with Punk, but she would welcome him back to WWE.
“I wish him the best. Would it be great to see him again? Absolutely," she said about Punk.
Clarifying her tweet, Vega said, "Rey had this jacket on during our entrance, and he put a big, red ‘X’ on Dominik’s face, because his face was on the jacket. And that became the thing — putting a big, red, ‘X’ on Dominik’s face. So that was something we were going to run with.”
— -- QUEEN ZELINA -- (@ZelinaVegaWWE) September 3, 2023
Vega did speak highly of Punk during the rest of the interview.
“I don’t know much about his situation with AEW, but I have always had a fantastic relationship with CM Punk. You hear all these things about him. I am so big on not listening to other people’s experiences, the dirt sheets, all that crap. He’s always been a fantastic person. There’s layers to people. And when people are just so hung up on the outer layers of what a person can be, you get stuck there. And if you want to stay there, that’s great. But when you get to know the core of a person, that’s where I like to hang out. To me, Punk’s been nothing but great. So will the ‘X’ be meaning putting an ‘X’ on Dominik’s face, and CM Punk? It absolutely can be, because, I’m a big supporter of him. And he’s always been that way for me," she said.
Punk worked with Vega's husband, Malakai Black, in AEW. Both men were part of AEW Collision and they worked as competitors in a trios match on the August 12 episode of AEW Collision.
As of now, it is unknown if a non-compete clause was attached to Punk's release. Tony Khan recently stated that he could not comment on the specifics of the release.
