9 Ups & 9 Downs For AEW In 2022
3. Bad Management Yields Shock Headlines
We may never ascertain exactly what happened between CM Punk, Tony Khan, Colt Cabana and the Elite.
Punk and Cabana worked the same Dynamite cards in October and November '21, around which time Punk, as bizarre as this reads now, was positively sweet and wholesome in his attempts to befriend Hangman Page on Twitter, despite knowing - surely - that Page was pally with Colt. It is possible to maintain a friendship with somebody even if you don't like all of their friends. This can't therefore have been inevitable from the very start.
So what happened?
Did Punk's mood darken with no provocation, because that's just the way he is? Did somebody - not the Elite, Dave Meltzer and Sean Ross Sapp have staked their reputations on that not being the case - really feed a "bullsh*t" story to the "sheets"? Because if the October 27 Dynamite is any indication, it is bullsh*t: that show was bookended by Punk and Cabana matches. Punk on that night did not "give a f*ck" "where Scott Colten works".
Or did Colt go away to film Young Rock, as Ace Steel replaced him as an agent, and Punk say to Tony that he preferred this new arrangement, actually?
Or did Khan infer that, by mistake or otherwise?
Meltzer is adamant without actually stating as such that the Punk-exerted-influence-to-disappear-Cabana story was true - direct WOR quote - "from the start".
And if it wasn't, why didn't Khan, who knew the rumour as well as anyone, book Colt to eat a pin on Elevation since he's a guy who gets pinned and that show is specifically about guys eating pins?
What we do know is that a complete failure to address the situation to the satisfaction of all involved mutated into Brawl Out. He should, in the event that Punk didn't make the decision - and Khan publicly insisted that this is the case - have told the Elite in no uncertain terms that Punk wasn't at fault. If Punk was behind the disappearance, Khan shouldn't have acquiesced, plain and simple. In that event, it was naive in the extreme not to expect any pushback.
He did not do anything. He let the situation spiral, and by the end of it, the top draw of his company left, three of its founding members were iced for two months, and throughout that time even his very good shows were overshadowed and tainted by an unshakeable, unsettling vibe.
Brawl Out was Khan's worst period as a leader by some distance.