CM Punk hasn’t been back in a wrestling ring since winning the AEW World Championship at last year’s All Out pay-per-view. What followed was the infamous “Brawl Out” incident with Ace Steel, Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks, leading to a slew of suspensions and firings. Punk’s status in the company was suddenly shrouded in uncertainty — it was never made clear if he was suspended for being involved in Brawl Out, he suffered a torn triceps in his most recent match, he’s still on AEW’s official roster, Tony Khan stripped him of the title but won’t comment on his status with the company and he’s mostly been silent about the situation beyond a few obscure Instagram posts and offhand comments during his MMA commentating gig.
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One of Punk’s most vocal supporters over the past six months has been Dax Harwood, who discussed Punk at length in the debut episode of his FTR podcast. Harwood did a new interview with Fightful this week and discussed Punk, telling Sean Ross Sapp that Punk still loves wrestling and that recently reading Steve Kiern’s book has made him miss being in the ring. Full quotes from the interview will be available on Friday, but you can read the preview here.
Harwood also once again pushed for Punk, Omega and the Bucks to move past the incident for the good of the company. He made the same plea during his podcast.
“I can tell you what I hope, because I don’t know,” Harwood said at the time. “Everyone knows about the legalities of the situation and no one is really expressing what is going to happen, what has happened, and what won’t happen. I can tell you, all I can be truthful about, I can only tell you what I know and what I perceive to know, I hope that he comes back. I feel that AEW should have the Young Bucks in their locker room. AEW should have Kenny Omega in the locker room. I know that I feel AEW should have CM Punk in the locker room. With those four entities, it makes our talent roster so much deeper and better. It’s four guys who want to be the best. Regardless of what any of us think personally, I know that we all want to be the best and I know we all want the best for professional wrestling. It’s given us a life that we could never have otherwise.
“This is my plea to all four guys,” he continued. “Please find a way to make it work. If we can make it work, we can set up the future of professional wrestling for a long time and we can change the course of professional wrestling for a very long time. When you think about it, unselfishly, we’re doing this for 20-30 years down the road so guys and girls can make a living.”
