8 Wrestlers That Visibly Hated Working For AEW

8. CM Punk

CM Punk has outright stated that he did not enjoy the best of times in All Elite Wrestling. Surmising that a lot of people no longer wanted him in the locker room, he revealed to Ariel Helwani that he asked to leave in the wake of Brawl Out.

The self-destruction of CM Punk in AEW is a long, knotty tale - which, helpfully, you can read by clicking that link - but to summarise more briefly:

CM Punk joined AEW. Punk had so much fun early in the run that people accused him of going soft. He then produced career best-level work. Almost immediately after this - Revolution 2022 - enemy Colt Cabana was removed from his post as producer, replaced by friend Ace Steel. Colt Cabana sympathisers felt this wasn’t a coincidence, most infamously Hangman Page, who cut an unsolicited shoot promo on Punk. Punk held his nerve, but gave Page a receipt months later. He then burnt the company to the ground at the All Out press conference, for which was suspended. He went along with the untenable idea for Collision, which he himself hardly helped. His misery festered and spilled over around Jack Perry’s throat, for which he was terminated with cause.

The fascinating stories only started to leak in late August 2022, but something felt off in the weeks beforehand.

Someone had to play a role with a more heel-ish slant in his all-babyface programme with Jon Moxley, but Punk seemed all too eager to go in two-footed during their first face-to-face confrontation - like he was unleashing real-life frustrations as opposed to telling a fictional story. Then there was the time he was meant to rally his fellow Chicagoans on the All Out go-home Dynamite. This spirited rah-rah speech was less than believable, since he interrupted a fellow citizen to call them a fat virgin.

Otherwise, Punk’s output remained stellar. His spiky mood actually enhanced a story driven by obvious 50/50 politics.

Even when he was visibly frustrated, he was still compelling.