AEW President Tony Khan has recently denied speculation that Colt Cabana’s move to the Ring Of Honor roster was due to backstage issues with his former friend CM Punk.
Tony Khan announced back in March that he had purchased Ring Of Honor. Since this announcement, a number of AEW talents have featured on ROH pay-per-views and currently hold championships on the brand, most notably Claudio Castagnoli, who is the current ROH World Champion.
It was revealed earlier this year that AEW star Colt Cabana has been assigned to the ROH roster, with many speculating that this move could be down to real-life tension between Cabana and CM Punk.
Tony Khan recently addressed this speculation while speaking to Blake Oestriecher of Forbes.
Khan stated:
“There is certainly a perception out there that I don’t think is accurate that when I purchased Ring of Honor and also [as] some of the contracts were coming up and I was starting to make moves—whether it was renewing them in most cases or not renewing them or in some cases reassigning people—there was a misconception that was perpetuated unfairly that CM Punk had anything to do with me wanting to move Colt Cabana to the Ring of Honor roster when his contract came up”
The AEW President went on to clearly state that Punk had nothing to do with Cabana’s switch to the ROH roster:
“I will clarify that, just to take it head on, that he [Punk] had nothing to do with any of the contracts I picked up, whether I did or didn’t. But in particular, I did pick up Colt Cabana’s contract and gave him a similar contract to do different work. I don’t know if it was fair that that got perpetuated…I also didn’t think that was fair to Punk.”
CM Punk is scheduled to headline tonight’s AEW All Out event in an AEW World Championship rematch against current champion Jon Moxley.