Did CM Punk Ever Consider Leaving AEW?

Contrary to multiple reports from last fall, CM Punk is on his way back to All Elite Wrestling. The Second City Saint is set to team with AEW World Tag Team Champions FTR to take on Ring of Honor Television Champion Samoa Joe and Bullet Club Gold's Jay White and Juice Robinson this Saturday on the premiere episode of AEW Collision. This will be Punk's first match since AEW All Out 2022, an infamous pay-per-view event that saw Punk tear his triceps, go on an uncensored tirade at the post-show press conference, and engage in a legitimate backstage fight with Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks. 

All this drama led to multiple rumblings that Punk and AEW were negotiating a buyout of his contract, but Punk himself has shut down those rumors.

"I certainly had some low moments, and I won't rule out in those fleeting moments where I just say, 'Ah, f--k this, whatever,' but I don't ever think it was a serious intention to say that I'm done," Punk told ESPN. "There's still work to do, and I think I'm excited about a lot of stuff that's coming up. So, to just throw the baby out with the bathwater, just because of a little boo-boo, I think would be a little silly."

What Punk has coming up is AEW Collision, a new Saturday night primetime in-ring program under the AEW banner.

"If I'm the poster boy, top guy, whatever, this is what people dream about," Punk said of the new show. "You get put in a position like this and, you know, can't take the negative criticism. Personally, I look at it like a challenge."

AEW Collision will be the company's fourth and fifth hour of weekly broadcasted in-ring content. Unlike AEW Rampage, an hour-long often taped show that airs in the difficult time slot of Fridays at 10 PM ET, AEW Collision will almost mirror flagship show AEW Dynamite in terms of rollout. There will also reportedly be a roster split of sorts for AEW Collision, which Punk sees as an opportunity to give even more TV time to talent that have been cut from other shows.

"With more TV time, you're only going to see guys like [Powerhouse] Hobbs and [Ricky] Starks, people who I think have the potential to do what an MJF has done with his television time but they haven't been able to be positioned because a guy like MJF gets a big lion share of television time, because he earned it," Punk said. "We just need to do a better job of spotlighting so many different guys, and this is, for a lot of guys, sink or swim. Now it's just like, well, now's the time. You're going to have to really bust your a-- and prove why we're giving you this spotlight and this TV time."

AEW Collision premieres this Saturday at 8 PM ET on TNT.