CM Punk Didn’t Want To Be AEW World Champion, Says Dax Harwood

CM Punk wouldn’t’ve had gold around his waist if he had his way.

CM Punk is a two-time AEW World Champion. He won it for the first time at Double or Nothing 2022 by beating ‘Hangman’ Adam Page, and then won it a second time at All Out 2022. But neither of these reigns would’ve taken place if the man himself called the shots.

One of the people close to CM Punk in AEW was Dax Harwood of FTR. The two had similar passions about pro wrestling and so trhey gravitated towards one another. As such, Harwood had several personal conversations with Punk, especially before the All Out PPV and the post-show scrum that allegedly took place.

During CM Punk’s time as an active wrestler in AEW, he shared some things with Dax Harwood that he didn’t share with many others. And when Harwood discussed his relationship on his podcast, Punk revealed some of the things on his mind, including his reluctance to carry all of AEW on his shoulders by virtue of becoming AEW World Champion:

“To be honest, he told me, when they were going to put the belt on him, that he didn’t want the belt. He said, ‘I just want to have fun,’ but he understood that Tony putting the belt on him would put AEW in a better light. He took it, begrudgingly a little bit, but he took the belt. At the time, he was taking me, Cash, Max [MJF], Wardlow, Hobbs, I’m missing so many guys, he was taking us out to eat, always paying for it.

He bought all the girls in the locker room Starbucks gift cards and had one of the girls hand them out, anonymously, and didn’t say who they were from, but it was from him, just because he loved the atmosphere and loved being there. He also loved the work the girls were putting in. He thought they were busting their ass to try and get the attention that WWE’s women’s division was getting.”

CM Punk held the AEW World title for a total of ninety recognized days between his two reigns. One of those also included an ‘interim champion’ reign whereby Dean Ambrose was also recognized as interim world champion while Punk was the ‘true’ world champion having never relinquished or lost his title.

h/t Fightful for the transcription