A T-Shirt & A Pizza: CM Punk & Kevin Owens' History Of Heat Explained

Despite both having decades under their belts inside the squared circle, CM Punk and Kevin Owens have never had a professional wrestling match together, but that is set to change, with the pair currently locked in a feud over the Undisputed WWE Championship.

The match was set up due to Owens’ number one contendership win upon his return from 18 months out of action with a serious neck injury at SummerSlam, while CM Punk successfully defended the WWE Title at the event against Cody Rhodes. 

Owens and Punk had their first face-to-face interaction as part of the programme on the August 7, 2026 edition of Friday Night SmackDown, during which Wade Barrett on commentary noted the announce team had been "specifically asked not to mention the history of CM Punk and Kevin Owens" before their in-ring segment. 

The history of heat between Kevin Owens is a long one, and stretches all the way back to 2005. 

Issues From The Start

By October 2004, Kevin Owens - then performing as Kevin Steen - had begun wrestling on independent wrestling events in the United States, which caused him and best friend Sami Zayn (who was El Generico at the time) to cross paths with CM Punk and Colt Cabana around a Jersey All Pro Wrestling show in New Jersey. JJ McGee, the author of Fight Forever: The Ballad of Kevin and Sami, noted that at their first encounter, Owens recalled that CM Punk and Colt Cabana were chilly towards the new talents. 

One week on from that show, Kevin Steen and El Generico gave their wrestling tapes to ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky, and they would start being booked by Ring of Honor from February 2005.

CM Punk, however, appeared to have a personal dislike towards Kevin Steen. Punk would often have stints on commentary during ROH events, during which he would insult ROH’s babyfaces in his role as a heel. Punk appeared to go out of his way to insult Kevin Steen, however, calling Steen's package piledriver finisher the "Mr Peepers Driver." 

A T-Shirt

Kevin Steen wrestled in a singlet during his early Ring of Honor matches in 2005 following a request from Gabe Sapolsky, with Steen working on the undercard while CM Punk was one of ROH’s top stars. 

After just his second ROH match, though, in March 2005, Steen requested to wear a t-shirt and Gabe Sapolsky agreed, although by the time what would be his third ROH match rolled around at ROH Stalemate in April of 2005, Steen had changed his mind and was planning to face Vordell Walker in a singlet.

Ahead of the match, though, CM Punk made sure to tell Kevin Steen that he shouldn’t wrestle in a t-shirt, with Punk doing so in a public fashion, with JJ McGee noting that Punk boomed over the PA system at ROH Stalemate: “Kevin Steen, this is God. You're a pro wrestler. Don't wear a t-shirt.”

Kevin Owens noted in a Highspots interview in 2014 what happened after that match: 

"When I was originally going to be booked in Ring of Honor, Gabe (Sapolsky) told me, ‘Will you wrestle in a t-shirt? That’s the only thing I don’t like.’ I’m like, ‘Well, I guess I could wrestle in a singlet.’ Because even back then, I wasn’t as big as I am now, but I wasn’t ripped or anything. I had no problem wrestling in a singlet, the t-shirt look just looked better on me. That’s all it is. I find the singlet just kind of looked generic, and whatever. So I wrestled in Ring of Honor a couple of shows without my shirt and whatever, and I could see that it wasn’t really working. It’s stupid, like I don’t think the fact that I was wrestling in a singlet was responsible for it not working but I had a hard time feeling like myself out there. Even the way I’m talking about it now, I think it was f*cking stupid that I felt that way. Like it’s dumb now that I know better, but I told Gabe, ‘Hey, can I just wear my f*cking shirt? What does it matter?’ And he’s like, ‘Yeah, fine. Whatever,’ for the next show. 

"Before that show, I guess Punk heard of this and he really had something against a guy wrestling in his t-shirt. Me and Punk weren’t friends or anything, but we knew each other. It was fine. I guess he took exception to me wrestling in the shirt so he told me before the show not to wear the shirt. I had already decided that I wasn’t going to wear it but, you know, when he told me that, I’m like, ‘Oh, I definitely shouldn’t wear the f*cking shirt.’ And I didn’t, and when I got to the back after my match, I don’t know what happened, man. I was blown up so maybe it came off really rude, but I wasn’t trying to be rude. Punk was looking at me, and I looked at him and I said, ‘Are you happy now?’ I was really just trying to kid around with him but he really took exception to that and reamed me out in front of the whole locker room about how disrespectful I was.

"Whatever, I yelled back a little and realised, 'What the f*ck am I doing? This isn’t my place. I’m new here and he’s a top guy, I shouldn’t be arguing with him.' Plus, Colt (Cabana) was my friend and him and Punk are friends, so I don’t want any of this sh*t. So I said, ‘Okay, you’re right, I’m sorry. I apologise.’ And that’s the way it stayed but then that always, you know, resonated in my head, like, 'Don't wear the t-shirt.' All this sh*t, that was always such a problem."

After their interaction, CM Punk wasn't done with Kevin Steen. Kevin Owens and El Generico would have a dark match at ROH The Homecoming in July 2005 and, by this point, CM Punk was ROH World Champion deep into the Summer of Punk, with Phil Brooks set to defend the ROH World Title against Christopher Daniels in the main event. 

Ahead of the dark match, the ROH World Champion sought out Kevin Steen and El Generico and, as JJ McGee noted in Fight Forever, decided to “magnanimously impart some words of wisdom.” According to Kevin Owens, this was, “I want you guys to do good, but… have a brain.”

Instead of having the great match they were capable of, Kevin Steen and El Generico had a perfectly safe bout inside the squared circle. After one final match in August 2005, Ring of Honor stopped Kevin Steen and Sami Zayn for the time being.

Kevin Owens Starts Wearing A T-Shirt

Kevin Owens and El Generico would be brought back to Ring of Honor in 2007, while CM Punk by this point was into his first run in WWE.

Steen and Generico, with Steen still wresting in a singlet, would cement themselves as two of ROH’s biggest stars both as a tag team and on-screen rivals in the ensuing years. 

When Kevin Steen returned to Ring of Honor in 2011, however, following several months away, he did so wrestling in a t-shirt and shorts. Steen made the change for multiple reasons, notably that he felt more comfortable in the attire and because he wanted to portray that he was in a real fight every time he stepped inside the squared circle. 

Steen’s ongoing real-life and on-screen issues with ROH Executive Producer Jim Cornette also played a part, with Steen, as Wrestling’s Worst Nightmare, very much portraying the antithesis of Jim Cornette’s vision of what professional wrestling should be and pro wrestlers should look like. This storyline would see Steen - in a t-shirt and shorts - be reinstated to Ring of Honor at Final Battle 2011 following a win over Steve Corino, and he would soon be crowned ROH World Champion, defeating Davey Richards at ROH Border Wars in May of 2012. Steen would hold the belt for 328 days until he dropped the title to Jay Briscoe at 2013's Supercard of Honor.

Steen would remain a top star for Ring of Honor until he finished up with the promotion and on the indies in July 2014, with WWE announcing in August of 2014 that the soon-to-be Kevin Owens had signed with the company. CM Punk by this point was gone from WWE, having walked out of the company in January 2014 and been fired on his wedding day that June. 

A Pizza

In one of the most famous/infamous episodes of a pro wrestling podcast ever, CM Punk appeared on then-best friend Colt Cabana’s Art of Wrestling podcast in November 2014, during which Punk detailed alleged medical negligence on the part of WWE doctor Chris Amann, among other issues, which resulted in Punk walking out of the Raw after Royal Rumble 2014 taping. 

That podcast episode would cause CM Punk and Colt Cabana’s friendship to fall apart. The two friends ended up being sued by Chris Amann for defamation over Punk’s comments on Art of Wrestling and, while the lawsuit would ultimately be dismissed by a jury, Cabana would later sue CM Punk, claiming his Second City Saints tag team partner didn’t keep his alleged promise to cover Cabana’s legal bills during the Amann lawsuit. CM Punk then countersued Cabana before they eventually agreed to dismiss both lawsuits.

After Amann filed the lawsuit against CM Punk and Colt Cabana, Punk made the decision to sever ties with many of his friends who were still wrestlers for WWE, and Punk, according to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, felt Colt Cabana should do the same.

Cabana ultimately didn’t do this, however, and at some point after the filing of the lawsuit, Colt went out for pizza in Chicago with Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, and PAC (then wrestling as Neville), who were all a part of WWE at the time.

Meltzer said on Wrestling Observer Radio in April 2023: 

"Okay, so the show on Monday when we were talking about the irony of the Punk thing and the thing that started all of this, which was when Punk and Cabana had their falling out when Cabana went to the show. Anyways, I've been told that the story is essentially correct, but it wasn't...Cabana didn’t go to a WWE show. He actually went out for pizza with Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, and PAC a couple of years ago and that's what caused the start of everything basically because he [Punk] felt that they shouldn't have contact with anyone in WWE because of the lawsuit. Cabana went for pizza with guys he's known on the independent scene for years and years and was good friends with."

CM Punk vs. Kevin Owens’ Friends

That pizza party would have unintended consequences for All Elite Wrestling in 2022, a promotion that Kevin Owens has not wrestled for but he had an indirect hand in creating through his close friendship with The Young Bucks and a piece of advice after Cody Rhodes left WWE in 2016 to get in contact with Matt and Nick Jackson. The trio would be three of the founders of All Elite Wrestling along with the likes of Kenny Omega, Hangman Page, and Tony Khan. 

Colt Cabana would find his way into All Elite Wrestling in 2020 and CM Punk, after seven years away from the industry outside of an indy cameo and a stint as an analyst on FOX’s WWE Backstage show, signed with All Elite Wrestling in August 2021. 

In 2022, however, speculation within the AEW locker room suggested Punk was involved in Tony Khan's initial decision to not re-sign Colt Cabana. Following lobbying in the locker room, Cabana was signed to a new deal, but tensions within the AEW locker room continued to build for a myriad of reasons until they exploded at the post-All Out 2022 media scrum when CM Punk went on a rant, while snacking on a muffin, about Colt Cabana, Hangman Page, and The Elite. The rant resulted in a backstage fight between CM Punk and Ace Steel with Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks, with reports at the time noting that Punk threw the first punch, while Ace Steel bit Kenny Omega and threw a chair that rocked Nick Jackson.

All five men would return to AEW but their issues, according to reports, were not resolved. They were kept apart, with the new AEW Collision series that premiered in June 2023 very much operating as the CM Punk show, while Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks were booked on Dynamite. 

Attempts to resolve the issues between CM Punk and The Elite failed by the time Punk was fired by All Elite Wrestling in September 2023 following a backstage confrontation with Jack Perry at the All In pay-per-view. 

Kevin Owens and The Young Bucks remain friends and they were so close during Owens’ time in Ring of Honor and the indies that they formed the Mount Rushmore faction together with Adam Cole in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, a stable that was active in 2013 and 2014. While they don’t see each other often now, Owens and Matt Jackson actually ended up vacationing together in the summer of 2024 after bumping into each other on the same beach in Hawaii.

Together In WWE

While they don’t often discuss each other publicly, any rift between CM Punk and Kevin Owens was not mended by the time Punk returned to WWE at Survivor Series 2023. 

While on a media tour for Bash in Berlin 2024, Kevin Owens was actually asked if he speaks to CM Punk, to which KO replied: "We never talk. We have no reason to talk. We're not friends. We're not, we don't, you know, we're just not, I don't know. We have no reason to talk. If we work together, we will talk, but just not a thing we do."

Similar to CM Punk and Drew McIntyre, though, any real-life issues haven't stopped the two wrestlers from working together on WWE TV, and if anything, it will be used to enhance the on-screen programme.