CM Punk is gaslighting AEW

Here we are again. The whispers have become a rumble. CM Punk is on his way (back) to AEW. Except this time, he’s kind of gaslighting his way there. Which is strange for someone who once hated leaks to the wrestling media so much he decided to start a fight over it.

There’s no question AEW has yet another big summer ahead. They have at least three PPVs — Double or Nothing on Memorial Day Weekend, Forbidden Door with NJPW at the end of June, and likely All Out in Chicago in September, though this time at the United Center. To boot, they’ve announced a show at Wembley Stadium for the week before Labor Day Weekend, which is usually the slot All Out slots in. No one has said that All In at Wembley will be a PPV, and they could configure the stadium to sell any number of tickets and call it a sellout (they don’t have to sell 80,000), but needless to say, they have to go big or go home with their tail between their legs.

CM Punk moves the needle

If you need to move tickets and create buzz, no one does that like CM Punk. This is a law of the industry. But much like his exit back in September when he firebombed the company he worked for and the people who gave him an alley back to the fans who adored him so, his return is just a touch unsightly.

Y’see, the reports have been out there that Punk wants to return. That he’s open to working with the Young Bucks. That he’d work with Kenny Omega, or even Hangman Page, the man he went rogue to shit on to settle a score in his own head and kicked off the bile that would eventually lead to Brawl Out. He’s even used his mouthpieces in FTR, recently re-upped by AEW, to squawk for his return and those matches. Though FTR just signed new contracts, so maybe they’re just feeling a bit springy on their own, and untouchable.

But, as Bryan Alvarez stated, if that match or those feuds were really in the works for All In or All Out, FTR wouldn’t need to clamor for them publicly. They would keep them under wraps until the right moment to unveil them to fans and get them salivating. So it kind of feels like they’re trying to pressure Tony Khan into it.

To boot, all the reports you hear, the kind of reports that drove Punk mad when they weren’t in his favor, indicate that the Bucks and Omega haven’t acquiesced to working with him upon his return. It’s also noticeable that both the Young Bucks and Omega are currently negotiating new contracts with AEW, and all three have at least hinted that they could head elsewhere. Maybe that’s just leverage, but it’s certainly a moment for Punk to strike, is it not?

Punk hasn’t made amends as far as we know

Nowhere has it been reported that Punk has apologized, or even taken any responsibility for what happened in September. He just wants to come back so badly. He wants to do it because he loves wrestling so much. Because he misses the fans so much. Ahem…

This sure feels like Punk positioning things to make it seem like he’s the victim in all this, and if only the selfish and big bad Bucks and Omega would simply deign to work with him, fans would get everything they want. Punk would get everything he wants. Except Punk has always wanted everything he wants without actually caring what it takes to get it, just as long as he gets it, and as long as he can make it look like he’s just doing a service for the true fan.

It seems like it will take more than money and some begging for the Bucks and Omega to get over Punk shitting on everything they’d created, everything they’d accomplished, and everything they are simply because Punk wants them to. Certainly Punk knows the draw that any feud with him and any combination of the Bucks, Omega, and Page would be, and it certainly looks like he’s playing on that to get his return without having to own up to anything he did or said, and to try and make the others the real villains in this. He’ll turn the AEW fans against those who created AEW in the first place if he has to, or he’ll die trying, before just saying he’s responsible in any way for his own exile. It’s really classic Punk.

He’ll be back in an AEW ring pretty soon. They just scheduled a Dynamite in June in Chicago, which seems curious to say the least. With the Bucks and Omega’s contract status up in the air, and the general bile from former coworkers toward him like Jon Moxley or Hangman Page — not to mention the cadre of other wrestlers who can’t stand his guts — it’s a wonder how much AEW is going to have to give up to get him there.

But as we’ve learned in the past, it’s never enough for CM Punk.

To watch Sam get buried in real-time by Punk sycophants, follow him on Twitter @Felsgate.