Did CM Punk Play A Part In Cody Rhodes' AEW Exit?

By Andrew Pollard / September 11, 2022

With CM Punk clearly having butted heads (quite possibly literally) with three AEW EVPs recently, some are pondering whether the Second City Saint's arrival in AEW played any part in one former EVP - as in, Cody Rhodes - deciding to depart All Elite Wrestling and return to WWE.

That particular topic came up on the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, and Dave Meltzer addressed whether he had heard anything about the Second City Saint having a role to play in Rhodes' AEW exit.

"I don't think so. There's a reason, and both Tony and Cody basically made an agreement that they would never tell. They were just going to part as friends and all that. I mean, like, with Cody, look, when I asked him, there's a reason. He gave his word about not going to say why. But it was just time to go. I don't really think Punk had a lot to do with it. I do think that his wanting to be a babyface and the crowd not letting him - and I'm not saying that's the reason - but that had to be frustration. And, look, money. Money's always a big part of this and he probably felt that for whatever reason in AEW he wasn't - he was getting weird reactions. He was over to more people than he was not, but it was not that giant thing, and he guessed that if he went back to WWE, in this situation, that he would get a great reaction, and he did. He guessed correctly. So, that was the move that he made.

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And he gave up a reality show to do it, and other opportunities , the Go Big Show and all that. For AEW, he was the guy that TBS and TNT were looking at for their other projects. And he gave that up to go. Obviously, I would presume the money he lost by not doing these other shows was more than made up for in the money he got in jumping, because his jump was very, very valuable to WWE, so I would expect that they paid very highly for it. And because they did, he made out well. Of all things, that's probably the biggest part. I'm sure there's a lot of small things, and Punk might be one of the small ones, I don't really know. I never heard anything in that direction. If that was it, I do believe we would've heard."

CM Punk returned to the pro wrestling world in August 2021 by appearing at AEW Rampage: The First Dance. For Cody Rhodes, his time in AEW came to an end in February 2022, with him returning to WWE after WrestleMania 38.

While they didn't have any notable on-screen interaction during their time in AEW together, it doesn't appear that Punk's presence had any real role in the American Nightmare's decision to leave the promotion. As Meltzer stated, if there was any smoke to that particular fire, chances are we'd have heard about it a long time ago - and not just now that the Chicago native has publicly lambasted Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks.

Both Punk and Cody are currently out of action, with the Straight-Edge Superstar having undergo triceps surgery this past week, whilst Rhodes is recovering from a torn pectoral muscle. Of course, it currently remains to be seen whether CM Punk will remain with AEW, as there is plentiful speculation that Tony Khan may fire him or that Punk himself will simply walk away from AEW following the already-infamous antics that took place after All Out last weekend.