10 AEW Wrestlers Who Are Almost Unrecognisable Since Debuting
1. CM Punk
What a difference two years make.
CM Punk doesn't just look different because he does exactly that by choice to differentiate between periods of his career. This isn't a hair or a beard thing, as effective as he's been juggling each style to suit the climate his character is about to inhabit.
On any given Collision in 2023, the former AEW Champion's eyes tell a different story to the one that giddily walked down the ramp on the second-ever episode of Rampage in 2021. With a range of emotions coursing through him as he announced his return to the industry in a literal and figurative sense, Punk was as earnest and sincere in front of a pro wrestling camera as he'd been since openly weeping his way out of Ring Of Honor in 2005. If he didn't feel at home before the broadcast kicked off, he'd made the promotion his personal playground by the time it'd ended.
In the shadow of Brawl Out and the absence that followed, Punk's temperament is (wonderfully) just ever-so-slightly...off. It's all to inform an impending heel turn that'll play more with those most devoted to his rivals within The Elite, but it has to be this way. Happy-to-be-there Punk isn't right for the role, and nobody should want it any other way.