A current AEW star has revealed that he was set to do battle with CM Punk on the night he walked out of WWE back in 2014.
On the night after the 2014 Royal Rumble, CM Punk caused a stir when he walked out of Raw and went home. Following that Punk never returned to the company in a wrestling capacity, famously receiving his walking papers on the morning of his wedding to former WWE star AJ Lee.
Punk returned to wrestling for the first time in seven years when he joined AEW in August 2021 but now his future with that company is less than certain following the backstage fight that occurred following All Out.
Now Ring of Honor World Champion Claudio Castagnoli has revealed to Chris Van Vliet on his Insight podcast that he was meant to do battle with Punk on the night he walked out of WWE:
“Here’s a fun fact. Do you know when the last time I was supposed to wrestle Punk was? The day he walked out.”
“He told me [he was leaving], I saw him in the hallway as he was on his way out.”
Instead of the man then known as Cesaro in WWE doing battle with Punk, the Swiss Superman teamed up with his then tag team partner Jack Swagger [Jake Hager] to defeat the luchador team of Rey Mysterio and Sin Cara.