CM Punk has returned to AEW after appearing on the premiere episode of Collision last Saturday, where he opened the show with a promo, taking a shot at “counterfeit Bucks,” before main eventing the show.
He made an unexpected appearance on Wednesday’s episode of AEW Dynamite to set up his match on Collision this week. It was reported prior to the show that due to the show being in Chicago, Punk’s hometown, AEW President Tony Khan decided not to have The Elite (Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks) appear on the show live.
As PWMania.com previously reported, tensions between those in AEW who dislike CM Punk and Punk have not improved since his ESPN interview and return promo. According to reports, the division has become worse in the last week.
In the most recent issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer reported that one of the promotion’s top stars is concerned about the possibility of another incident.
Meltzer stated, “One top name noted to us that they went home after the show on Wednesday in a bad mood and even with the key people kept apart and not on the same shows, described the fear of this being a ticking time bomb that will not have a happy ending.”
The idea behind bringing Punk back was to separate him from those who disagree with him and vice versa, thus building Collision around him on a different roster.
