Backstage Talk On CM Punk’s AEW Future – CM Punk has seemingly agreed with recent comments made by IWGP Tag Team Champion Dax Harwood of FTR on fallout from the AEW All Out incident that went down back in September.
As noted, Harwood premiered his new FTR podcast this week and discussed the situation with Punk and AEW Executive Vice Presidents The Elite coming out of the backstage fight at All Out. You can click here for Harwood’s full comments on the matter, which included a plea for Punk, Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks to remain in the AEW locker room and work together.
“I can tell you what I hope, because I don’t know. Everyone knows about the legalities of the situation and no one is really expressing what is going to happen, what has happened, and what won’t happen. I can tell you, all I can be truthful about, I can only tell you what I know and what I perceive to know, I hope that he comes back. I feel that AEW should have the Young Bucks in their locker room. AEW should have Kenny Omega in the locker room. I know that I feel AEW should have CM Punk in the locker room. With those four entities, it makes our talent roster so much deeper and better. It’s four guys who want to be the best. Regardless of what any of us think personally, I know that we all want to be the best and I know we all want the best for professional wrestling. It’s given us a life that we could never have otherwise. This is my plea to all four guys. Please find a way to make it work. If we can make it work, we can set up the future of professional wrestling for a long time and we can change the course of professional wrestling for a very long time. When you think about it, unselfishly, we’re doing this for 20-30 years down the road so guys and girls can make a living,” Harwood said.
In an update, The Pro Wrestling Podcast took to Instagram and posted a graphic on Harwood’s comments. The headline said, “AEW’s Dax Harwood makes plea for CM Punk, The Elite to ‘find a way to make it work.’”
The podcast captioned the screenshot with, “Let’s just shake hands and say sorry lol. No but seriously.”
Punk responded in the comments section and simply wrote, “Duh.”
Punk’s response indicated he’d like to return to AEW. Punk, The Elite and former AEW Producer Ace Steel were suspended following the backstage incident at All Out. Since then, Steel was fired, and The Elite returned to action in November. Punk has been on the shelf with the triceps tear suffered at All Out, and there’s been no update on the rumored buy-out of Punk’s AEW contract. As of a few weeks back, Punk was still under contract and his merchandise was still being sold at AEW events.
Regarding Punk possibly staying with AEW, it was mentioned in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer how several top AEW talents, including Chris Jericho, told the rest of the locker room that they’d make sure Punk was not brought back to the company.
This is in line with a previous report on how there was a lot of backstage talk about Punk not returning to AEW, with several top people saying he won’t be back, plus reports of top names saying they wouldn’t work with Punk again, including Jericho, who was the name mentioned the most among sources. Jericho reportedly confronted Punk backstage after the incident. Another top AEW star previously noted that the team has decided Punk is out and regardless of some being willing to work with him, “the collective decided that he was voted off the island.”
The Observer also pointed to how having Punk back is best for business from an outside perspective, if you ignore everything that happened, but if it doesn’t happen, it could be assumed that Punk is willing to play ball and the other wrestlers aren’t. Punk’s comment tells people he wants back in, and creates a buzz among fans over a potential return, but it also puts AEW President Tony Khan in a “very bad position” with other talent.
“Several of the top guys, Chris Jericho being among them, told the rest of the locker room that they’d make sure Punk wasn’t brought back. I think a lot depends on where business is in about five or six months when Punk viably could be back. If business is bad, the odds of Khan wanting him back are higher, especially with this being a contract year. If business is strong and they look to be getting a big increase in talks, the situation becomes very different. In theory, the longer he’s out, the more the return means,” it was stated in The Observer. But there are a lot of differences because for this to have any chance of working Punk would have to apologize and maybe he will, but I’m not counting on it and without it it’s probably going lead to a lot of issues. But that same reality is why it could cause a lot of issues, not so much in the ring because everyone involved are pros in the ring, but just backstage aspects.”
It was also pointed to how Punk’s injury is somewhat of an ally in coming back because there’s no point in making a decision until months later, and the more that time goes by, the more the wounds heal on paper, and pro wrestling history says to never say never. There are several factors at play that can and will change over the next several months but as of now, nothing has changed with Punk’s status.
Backstage Talk On CM Punk’s AEW Future
