10 Fascinating Backstage Facts From CM Punk's AEW Run

3. Different Dance Partners

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Fact: Despite being a contentious figure, CM Punk worked with a huge variety of wrestlers during his AEW run.

Recency bias will lead many to conclude that CM Punk’s divisiveness led to him only working with a select group of wrestlers on Collision and the occasional major match with the likes of MJF, Hangman Adam Page and Jon Moxley.

However, when Punk returned to wrestling in 2021, he said he wanted to work with a variety of wrestlers, especially younger talent. He specifically called out Darby Allin in his AEW debut, but he also wrestled the likes of Powerhouse Hobbs, Daniel Garcia, Lee Moriarty, Wardlow, Max Caster and Matt Sydal.

He worked with veterans Sting and Dustin Rhodes, and he even battled rivals Eddie Kingston and Bobby Fish, neither of whom would never be confused as fan club members.

And while it’s true that his run on Collision was mainly limited to working with FTR, Bullet Club Gold, Ricky Starks and Samoa Joe, he also tangled with Christian Cage, Swerve Strickland, House of Black, and even Hook.

That’s a pretty wide variety of opponents and partners in a two-year period, especially since half that time was spent sidelined.

Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.