AEW Reformatting Long-Term Creative Due To CM Punk & Daniel Bryan

The potential arrival of two of the hottest names in the industry could create quite the headache.

Jul 25, 2021 July 25th, 2021

As rumours continue to rumble on that Daniel Bryan and CM Punk could both soon sign for AEW, these potential arrivals are reportedly causing Tony Khan's promotion to reformat some of their long-term creative plans.

Speaking during an appearance on the jaBROnies podcast (as per eWrestlingNews), Bodyslam.net's Cassidy Haynes - who first reported that Punk was AEW-bound - AEW is looking at possibly changing plans up in order to maximise the huge buzz that arrival of either Bryan and Punk would cause amongst the industry.

Haynes claimed that previous plans were for Daniel Bryan to appear at 22 September's Grand Slam special from Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, New York. Talks between Bryan and AEW first started two or three weeks ago, with it soon decided that Grand Slam would be the American Dragon's AEW bow.

After those Bryan talks started, that's reportedly when talks began of having CM Punk turn up at All Out on 5 September in Chicago. Now, that has left AEW trying to work out when these two former WWE Champions should debut and who they should be involved with if and when said debuts happen.

Previously, AEW had long-term plans in place leading up to All Out and beyond, but that seems to have been thrown up in the air a little. Given how All Out is in CM Punk's hometown, it would be crazy to pass up the opportunity to debut him there to a truly insane crowd reaction - meaning that Bryan's planned Grand Slam appearance may ultimately end up pushed back in order to maximise the buzz for each arrival, rather than have them happen less than three weeks apart.

Andrew Pollard

Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.

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