The Self-Destruction Of CM Punk In AEW | Wrestling Timelines
How the wheels came off for All Elite Wrestling.
In late 2025, AEW is finally over the CM Punk drama that engulfed the promotion across 2022 and 2023. The earth was still scorched in 2024, in fact, when Punk in effect became an offscreen character in a widely-panned storyline premised on the damage he inflicted.
World champion Hangman Page reigns with confidence having finally vanquished an existential threat that, at last, was of AEW’s own design and making. AEW has realised its identity. It’s Where The Best Wrestle, which is formulaic but also exhilarating on occasion. It’s no longer being pulled in different directions by competing egos and philosophies. A couple of years ago, unresolved tension informed a lack of trust. Some fans didn’t know if their favourite wrestlers were even going to be involved in the company. For a few agonising months, in 2022, there wasn’t even an ‘E’ in AEW; a year after that, with nothing settled, the Elite felt checked-out.
The Young Bucks are back in form, with their renewed enthusiasm informing a weekly spree of creativity. Kenny Omega enters incredible, brave performances when his body allows. CM Punk is happy in WWE, and he no longer cares to make snarky asides in AEW’s direction. It's over.
Everybody seems to be getting along. The stories are broadly fine, no longer burdened by awkward tension. The dedicated ultra fanbase is engaged, looking at very impressive recent PPV buy numbers.
AEW is no longer haunted by CM Punk. The damage has been repaired - but did Punk inflict that damage?
This is the story, penned in chronological order, of the infamous saga that threatened to permanently ruin “the feeling”...