10 Wrestlers Who Turned Down AEW
5. CM Punk
As it stands, CM Punk is one of an extremely select few individuals who walked away from a wrestling ring and really did stick to his promise of being 'done'.
Still, the Second City Saint has teased that he'd be open to an in-ring return if somebody made an offer that was creatively appealing and financially rewarding. Unfortunately for AEW, their chance of tempting Punk to become All Elite failed miserably - seemingly down to having informally AEW approached the situation.
In a 2019 interview with EPSN, a frank Punk explained how three different AEW officials had text him offers to sign with the company.
On how this isn't exactly the most professional way to approach a potential big-name signee, the Chicago native detailed:
"I always think if somebody wants to do business with me, they can talk to me. Texting offers isn't really a way to do good business."
In a follow-up story, Dave Meltzer went one further and even reported that Tony Khan actually first had loose talks with CM Punk as far back as 2018. But as of yet, Punk is still yet to play ball with Khan's crew.