5 Reasons CM Punk Was WORTH The Trouble To AEW (... & 5 He Wasn't)
The pros and cons of wrestling's most controversial personality.
At long last, the book has closed on the CM Punk era of AEW. For a remarkably neat two year period, the exploits of Phillip Brooks inside the ring and out have been the dominant narrative for the still-young promotion. From great matches and angles to controversy and embarrassing behaviour, more often than not, CM Punk was What We Talk About When We Talk About AEW.
And now he’s gone, not with a whimper or a bang but yet another backstage scrap and a social media announcement from Tony Khan. Where the company goes from here remains to be seen, but the first question we must ask is: was it all worth it?
Well, yes and no. CM Punk is, as ever, a man of contradictions. A champion of free speech with astonishingly thin skin. A champion of the underdog who managed to get his boss to make him his own TV show. A teetotaller with the reckless manner of an Oliver Reed.
Punk inspires strong feelings, in brief. And as we’ll go on to detail, for everything great he did for AEW, he did something very, very silly, too.
10. Was: Grabbed The Headlines
AEW was, of course, hardly an unknown quantity before CM Punk got involved, but it’s impossible not to feel like the company took a step up in notoriety when the former WWE champion signed on the dotted line and made his astonishing comeback at Rampage in Chicago (on which more later).
Punk is a fascinating figure in the world of wrestling and combat sports. After his acrimonious departure from WWE and his UFC embarrassment, it felt unlikely fans would ever see him lace up a pair of boots again. He had plenty of other pursuits, he was kicking on. Seven years is a long time to be out of the game.
So when he stepped through the curtain at the United Centre, by sheer virtue of his undeniable superstar credentials, he made wrestling feel as relevant in the wider world as it had since AEW kicked off, if not all the way back to that pipebomb promo on Monday Night Raw.
Even if Tony Khan had access to a crystal ball and knew the havoc that would unfold, Punk might have been worth the hassle for that reason alone: only a handful of wrestlers can bring those eyeballs.