The November 2nd edition of AEW Dynamite featured a surprise appearance from Colt Cabana, former friend of CM Punk. The star hadn’t wrestled on the show in almost a year and had been signed signed to a deal which saw him appear mainly on Ring of Honor branded pay-per-views. A deal rumoured to have been done at the behest of Punk.
As CM Punk’s importance to All Elite Wrestling increased, there was speculation that he had asked for Cabana to be moved away from the brand and towards ROH. Punk and Cabana have a long history where the once close friends, haven’t been on good terms for a long time.
This came to a head as part of CM Punk’s rant at the post-All Out media scrum where the star hit out at these reports and Cabana himself, as well as a number of other things. As the number of reports increase suggesting that Punk may be done with AEW, Cabana reappeared on Dynamite. Many fans took this to mean that Punk will not be returning to the company.
Tony Khan Mentioning CM Punk “Wasn’t An Accident”
In the lead up to Dynamite, AEW President Tony Khan mentioned CM Punk for the first time since the incident at All Out during an interview. This only served to muddy the waters with regard to speculation around his future.
However, as far as Colt Cabana is concerned, it has been noted by PWInsider and Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his match on Dynamite was a one-off. Although Steven Muehlhausen of DAZN has reported that Cobana’s appearance was not a shot at CM Punk, and interestingly, Khan’s mention of the former AEW World Champion “wasn’t an accident.”
https://twitter.com/SMuehlhausenJr/status/1588287369186533377
In reference to Colt Cabana wrestling on Dynamite, Dave Meltzer reported the following:
“Whatever it was, it was Tony Khan’s idea. We were told that this was more for the locker room than anything else, that having Cabana on the show and given a positive spotlight after months of being ostracized for reasons that had nothing to do with him was a dressing room morale booster since he had many friends there. As best we can tell, Cabana was only in for that one match but is still under contract to ROH, but is no longer ostracized and could be used again in some form.”
Meltzer added that until this week, Cabana was the only contracted ROH performer who wasn’t also brought to Dynamite.