All Elite Wrestling held their All Out PPV Event last September 4th from the NOW Arena in the Chicago suburb of Hoffman Estates, Illinois. Immediately following the All Out PPV Event, a media scrum would take place and a major brawl would ensue between CM Punk, Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson) and Ace Steel following CM Punk’s comments on The Elite and that would lead to AEW stripping Punk and the Elite of their championships and being suspended indefinitely alongside AEW producer Pat Buck, Christopher Daniels, Michael Nakazawa and Brandon Cutler, some of which have already made their return.
Former AEW World Champion CM Punk is one of the most outspoken and controversial personalities in all of pro wrestling, but he is undoubtedly one of the biggest stars in all of pro wrestling as well. The former AEW and WWE World Champion is most notably known for his 434-day reign as WWE Champion and the pipebomb promo he cut during his WWE days, but it has been discussed that Punk isn’t expected to make a return to AEW following the events that transpired at the post-AEW All Out media scrum. It was also reported that a contract buyout will most likely be taking place between CM Punk and AEW and that the former AEW World Champion could possibly be returning to the WWE.
Wade Keller took to an episode of his PWTorch.com audio show, where he spoke about how certain people in AEW said Punk’s run with the company wouldn’t go well and wouldn’t last due to his personality and his general history of discontent.
This is what Wade Keller said:
“Quite a few people I spoke with who had become familiar with Punk over the years had predicted when he signed with AEW that his stint with AEW wouldn’t go well and wouldn’t last, citing his personality, and his general history of discontent.”
Keller also discussed how there was jealousy in the AEW locker room due to Punk’s rumored salary as a number of top AEW wrestlers thought their spot on the promotion’s card was being moved down and their potential push was being delayed.
This is what Wade Keller said:
“There was some jealousy of his rumored salary, you know, upwards of $3 million per year, with understandably, some wrestlers thinking their spot on the card moved down a notch, and their potential push was delayed a year or two because of him. Jon Moxley has made it clear he wanted to be an alpha top guy. Cody Rhodes wanted that, he saw himself as that. Kenny Omega was initially seen as being that. Bryan Danielson was in certain ways redundant to Punk as a lead babyface…”
“So summarizing, mid-card wrestlers saw themselves being displaced by the aligning of Punk, Cole, and Danielson from WWE fame into the AEW sphere all at once.”
Wade Keller then discussed how if Vince McMahon was still in charge of the WWE chances of Punk making his return to the promotion would have been much less compared to now with Triple H in charge, but it doesn’t mean Triple H is a fan of CM Punk and someone who is an influential person and a part of Paul “Triple H” Levesque’s decision making circle and process would certainly vote no in brining back Punk to the company.
This is what Wade Keller said:
“As I talked about this fall, Paul Levesque is more likely to bring Punk back than Vince McMahon would have been, not less. That doesn’t mean Paul Levesque was a fan of CM Punk. But Paul Levesque is in a different position than Vince McMahon. Vince McMahon never believed in CM Punk. And therefore, in the way he pushed Punk never really fully got behind him. Paul Levesque, while he thinks Punk personality wise might be more trouble than he’s worth, has shown a history of recognizing wrestlers who are over with today’s fans that he himself might not have predicted would be over…”
“Somebody who’s currently in WWE, and is within the sphere of influence of Paul Levesque’s decision making would be a hard ‘No’ as of me asking this person today. A hard ‘No’ on endorsing the return of CM Punk, even if it would help business. I won’t go into exactly what was said. But when I asked, I got a long paragraph of one sentence after another of negative comments about how they feel about Punk now, compared to 8, 9, 10 years ago, based on what’s happened in AEW, in the last 13 months. And by the way, related to this, I talked to three people of significant stature in AEW in the last couple of days…I asked how would a vote go in the AEW locker room if they were asked if they wanted Punk to return? One person said he wouldn’t fare very well. Another person said he thinks he might not get a single vote. And someone else says he doesn’t think he’d get many votes…I think he’d get some personally just based on conversations I’ve had the last six weeks with others. The three people I just talked to in the last few days are higher, prominent people of influence in that locker room. So that tells you something about his standing and why I think if Punk were to return it wouldn’t necessarily go well for him in either place. And I think that’s going to that falls into the calculation of Tony Khan right now. And it might fall into the calculation of Paul Levesque. I still believe Levesque would be more likely to bring him in than Vince McMahon for the reasons I said, but I think there would be some pushback by people in Levesque’s sphere of influence.”
H/T to WrestlingNews.co for transcribing the quotes.
