This past weekend has been absolutely insane for All Elite Wrestling. A fantastic PPV event in All Out was overshadowed due to a tirade from new AEW World Champion CM Punk, where he ripped into his former friend Colt Cabana and the EVP’s in AEW who supported him. This all turned into a potential walkout from Kenny Omega & The Young Bucks, and a backstage fight where chairs were thrown and Ace Steel reportedly bit Omega. No one could have seen this coming when CM Punk joined the company, but one man might have seen the writing on the wall.
Cody Rhodes Was One Of The First To Warn About CM Punk
While it’s hard to remember it happened in 2022, Cody Rhodes leaving AEW to return to WWE was a major story earlier in the year. Rhodes was one of the men who started the company alongside Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks & Tony Khan – and held the role of EVP. Despite all this, he would leave AEW and return to the company where he started his career, and is better for it.
However, taking this past weekend’s events and the final rambling promo from Rhodes in AEW into account, there might be more to his exit than first appeared. While at the time, Rhodes bringing up CM Punk and the fact that he did everything Punk promised in the Pipebomb seemed like a way to set up a match, but it might have been more. For those who haven’t heard this promo in a while, Rhodes was quoted saying the following about CM Punk.
“In that interview, that was the first whiff of a revolution. He laid out a roadmap. He listed things. Things that for him – for somebody like me – that were taboo at the time. Things like going to New Japan Pro Wrestling, working with Ring of Honor, and ultimately, he would talk about teaming with the Young Bucks, as destiny would have it. As fate would have it. He was unable to do those things. But he would join – he would eventually wind up here in what pro wrestling illustrated called the comeback of the year, but if we’re being honest with one another, and I see all the CM Punk shirts, it is the comeback of the decade. We are all living it, we are all loving it. But in his absence, in the void that CM Punk left behind, somebody did do each and every one of those things. I did them.”
Seeing The Writing On The Wall And Getting Out At The Right Time
CM Punk entering AEW was when everything seemed to change. Suddenly, the scope of events would get bigger, and there were more eyes on the product because of him. However, just about anyone who shared a locker room with Punk, people like Rhodes – knew that there was always a chance everything would go sideways. Time doesn’t always change a man, and that would show this past weekend when Punk would take direct shots at his co-workers, for seemingly no reason.
We’ve seen the likes of Sean Ross Sapp claim that Cody Rhodes had “incredible foresight” in leaving AEW when he did. His leaving was around when truly everything felt like it started to go off the rails, the changes by the likes of Punk, Danielson & Cole arriving being felt. While Rhodes might have just wanted to return to WWE, there’s an argument to be made that he saw clashes in ideologies between the AEW originals & WWE hires coming, and knew a lack of backstage structure could make for a dangerous situation.
Time will tell if this situation with CM Punk & AEW works out in the end, but currently – it seems like Ace Steel has already been fired following the backstage fight, and Punk could well be behind him – just needing to drop the AEW World Championship to MJF on the way out. There is also still a chance that there’s some blending of reality going on in AEW right now, setting up a feud between The Elite & Punk, FTR and other men who stood by him. Punk is known for blending Kayfabe & reality after all.
>h4> What do you think is coming from CM Punk’s recent issues in AEW? Let us know what you think in the comment section down below.
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