CM Punk was last seen on AEW programming at the Revolution pay-per-view, defeating MJF in an ultra-violent Dog Collar Match. Friedman has already made his way back to TV, costing Wardlow his TNT Championship match with Scorpio Sky and brutally attacking his former bodyguard alongside Shawn Spears for betraying him during the Punk match. Punk’s absence over the past few weeks was reportedly due to the filming of Heels Season 2, where he’ll appear once again as the wrestling journeyman Ricky Rabies.
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Punk confirmed he’d be in Texas for this week’s edition of AEW Dynamite on Tuesday, posting a photo of himself in a hilarious outfit. There’s no word yet on what his next program will be.
Punk revealed in interviews prior to Heels Season One that he tried out for the leading role of Jack Spade years before the show got off the ground. Stephen Amell wound up getting the part but Punk was still added to the cast.
“Long story short, years ago when Heels first went into development, I want to say 2016-ish, I spent a week in LA with Michael Waldron, the writer of the show. And I auditioned for the lead role, Jack Spade. I read in a small room for Starz executives, Waldron was really pushing for this show to get made and it looked good. I must have done so good that they shelved the entire project for three-four years. And then it gets brought back to life, Waldron calls me up and says ‘Jack Spade is Stephen Amell.’ And I was thrilled because this is Waldron’s baby, he wants the story told the right way and I know how much of a fan of pro wrestling Stephen Amell is,” Punk told Sunday Night’s Main Event last August. “And he’s been the lead on a television show for years and years on Arrow, he’s the right guy for the job.”
Waldron then spoke with ComicBook about the process of casting Spade — “Well, casting the lead of any show is hard, because they’ve just got to be an awesome, tremendous actor who can carry a show on their shoulders. Playing Jack Spade, there’s the added requirement of you have to have the physicality of a great wrestler. We had to have somebody who could believably pull off this stuff in the ring and outside of the ring, when framed against his wife and kids, and other people in the town, you’d believe this is a pro wrestler who lives here.
“There’s not a lot of people who look like that who are also great actors. Steven Amell is one of those people,” he added. “We were so fortunate to get him, coming off of the success of Arrow, with the ultimate added bonus of the guy loves wrestling. He might be the biggest fan of all of us, and he’s actually wrestled with WWE. So I mean, God, we were lucky to get Steve.”
