In an interview with Collider ahead of AEW’s debut on TNT, Executive Vice President Cody Rhodes said that CM Punk made them “look like dumbasses” when he said in an interview with Marc Raimondi of ESPN that they sent him an offer via a text message.

“I’m sure we texted him, but we also called him. Someone also met you in a coffee shop. We made genuine efforts,” Rhodes said with his wife, Brandi, by his side. “We got to focus on who really wants to be on board with us versus going out and finding someone who perhaps doesn’t really want to be part of this,” Cody said in a dig at Punk.

Cody said that he did not communicate with Punk further after the interview and while he expected to run into him at Starrcast, he did not. “I’m sure we’ll run into each other at some point. If he ever wanted to be part of this and he had the passion to comeback to wrestling…that door is always open. No ego…no situation would ever prevent us from having him come in because the fans have never given up on Punk…ever. It is crazy,” Rhodes added.

Punk appeared at Starrcast this past August during the AEW All Out weekend in Chicago and took part in a sold-out Q&A panel moderated by PWInsider’s Mike Johnson. Johnson was the one who also broke the news that Punk participated in an on-screen audition to be part of the WWE Backstage show on FS1 this week.