AEW Star Reveals Cancelled Storyline With CM Punk

CM Punk's AEW future is in doubt. Following the now-infamous AEW All Out press conference, reports have circulated that AEW and Punk are actively negotiating a buyout of his contract. While Punk is still listed on the AEW roster page, recent developments on AEW Dynamite such as Colt Cabana's return to television and The Elite's references to the backstage fight in a match with Death Triangle have reportedly done damage to Punk's already precarious relationship with his current employer. Even in an alternate universe where the AEW All Out presser doesn't happen, Punk would still be off of television, as he suffered a torn triceps in his pay-per-view bout with Jon Moxley.

Even after getting hurt early in the bout, Punk still finished the match, reclaiming the AEW World Title. His celebration was short-lived, however, as a returning Maxwell Jacob Friedman confronted him from the stage, indicating that he was going after Punk's newly-won championship. MJF still ended up pursuing pretty platinum, but was forced to chase Moxley instead of Punk.

Speaking to Renee Paquette on The Sessions, The Firm's Stokely Hathaway revealed that MJF's former stable on retainer was originally scheduled to be heavily-involved with Punk.

"Everything that was supposed to happen with The Firm did not happen," Hathaway said (h/t Fightful). "Back at All Out, and what happened immediately after the pay-per-view, that's a huge part of it. Who we were supposed to directly feud with is no longer in the company."

Hathaway added that Punk specifically pointed to him as someone that he wanted to work with.

"That is one thing I was looking forward to because I was hand chosen for that role. I'm just going to say it, I don't know the specifics, if people are choosing sides or whatever, but for me, the fact that CM Punk said, 'Hey, I want to work with this guy,' it holds a lot of weight and means a lot, regardless of what has happened, what will happen," Hathaway continued. 

Punk's unexpected absence forced The Firm to scrap just about everything that they had planned.

"When that didn't happen anymore, it was literally re-writing everything on the fly," Hathaway added. "Everyone in the group is trying to do their best and we're trying to figure out how to make this work because the original purpose isn't the purpose anymore. It's like, what do you do?"

Hathaway assured that there is a new plan in place for The Firm, but it's far from the finished product.

"Things are slowly gearing up, it's just going to take a few weeks," Hathaway said. "With the way wrestling is nowadays, I get it, first impressions are everything, but it's a little difficult to change people's minds. Most people don't want to see Picasso work on his painting, they just want to see shit done. That's the phase we're in, we're working on it, but people don't want to see it worked on, they want to see the finished product."

AEW Dynamite airs this Wednesday, November 30th on TBS.