When CM Punk embarked on his now-infamous rant following All Out, the situation around Colt Cabana was front and centre. It is well-known that the former best friends have been at odds for a number of years now, with their animosity stemming from legal issues that followed CM Punk’s appearance on Cabana’s Art of Wrestling podcast where the star made a number of accusations against WWE’s treatment of him.
When CM Punk debuted for AEW in August 2021, many wondered what would happen with Cabana, who was a key member of the popular Dark Order faction at the time. When the star disappeared from AEW TV for several months, fans speculated that it was at the request of Punk himself, something he has denied.
Fuel was added to the fire when, in the aftermath of CM Punk’s suspension, Colt Cabana reappeared on the November 2nd edition of Dynamite to face Chris Jericho for the ROH World Championship.
Tony Khan Denies CM Punk asked for Colt Cabana to be moved to ROH
At the media scrum following AEW Full Gear on November 19th, Tony Khan attempted to clear up the situation, saying that it was not something Punk asked for when he joined the company.
“No, no. He never asked for that. He never asked for that. The first time it came up, I think you asked me that on a scrum call, and I wasn’t looking at you face to face. It was before [ROH] Death Before Dishonor, I think. He never asked me that. I could have probably addressed it then. I just didn’t comment on it because wanted to keep talking about the wrestling that was on the show because Colt Cabana was wrestling on the show. You weren’t asking me specifically about the show, so I didn’t answer that there. But no.”
Khan went on to explain how Colt Cabana’s match with Chris Jericho came about, saying he thought it made sense as part of the current Ring of Honor storyline and had nothing to do with the CM Punk situation.
“As far as the match with Chris in Baltimore, I thought it made a lot of sense because we had the Ring of Honor championship series, and we had talked about Chris Jericho wrestling so many of the great names in Ring of Honor. When you talk about great people who have held championships in Ring of Honor, we brought in Bandido, Dalton Castle, a lot of great people. Tomohiro Ishii’s a great former Ring of Honor World TV Champion.”
“When we’ve been booking the shows, I’ve been using Colt Cabana, both as a coach and a wrestler in Ring of Honor. So I looked at the Ring of Honor roster, and Colt Cabana’s a very logical challenger because not only has he held the Ring of Honor World Tag Team Championship, but he’s also somebody who’s been wrestling in the new Ring of Honor, the 2022 Ring of Honor. He’s undefeated, he’s won both of his matches, so I thought he’d be a very logical challenger for Chris, and it’s also a good match.”
H/T to WrestleZone for the above transcription.