Tony Khan Denies CM Punk Forced Colt Cabana To Be Moved To Ring Of Honor
Tony Khan has addressed some rumors that CM Punk’s presence in AEW might have caused Colt Cabana to be moved to ROH only in the past.
When CM Punk debuted in AEW in August 2021, there was a big celebration because it meant the return to pro wrestling of a guy that was one of the biggest stars in WWE over the last 15 years. It also meant people wondering what would happen with Colt Cabana, who used to be Punk’s good friend, but they had a falling out after multiple lawsuits following a controversial podcast.
After Punk started in AEW and won nearly every match over the last year (including two AEW World Title wins), Cabana was gone from AEW and assigned to the Ring of Honor brand that AEW’s Owner Tony Khan purchased earlier in 2022.
CM Punk is now out of AEW potentially forever after the infamous All Out press conference rant that was followed by a backstage fight with The Elite. At the All Out press conference, Punk complained about Cabana and mocked him for having a bank account with his mother among other things. Punk is out for several months anyway after surgery on his torn triceps. Recently, Punk joked about the fight.
On the November 2nd episode of AEW Dynamite, Cabana returned to AEW to lose a match to Chris Jericho for the ROH World Title. It was apparently a one-time only which was also a sign that Punk is likely never coming back to AEW. A recent report claims that Cabana appearing on Dynamite apparently hurts the possibility of Punk ever coming back.
Following the AEW Full Gear pay-per-view, Khan was asked about the Cabana-Punk story and provided some insight into what happened there while denying that Punk forced Cabana to be moved from AEW to ROH.
“No, no. He never asked for that. He never asked for that. The first time it came up, I think you asked me that on a scrum call, and I wasn’t looking at you face to face. It was before Death Before Dishonor, I think. He never asked me that. I could have probably addressed it then. I just didn’t comment on it because wanted to keep talking about the wrestling that was on the show because Colt Cabana was wrestling on the show. You weren’t asking me specifically about the show, so I didn’t answer that there. But no.”
Khan went on to talk about the decision to use Cabana in the Dynamite match against Jericho as well as Cabana’s role in ROH.
“As far as the match with Chris in Baltimore, I thought it made a lot of sense because we had the Ring of Honor championship series, and we had talked about Chris Jericho wrestling so many of the great names in Ring of Honor. When you talk about great people who have held championships in Ring of Honor, we brought in Bandido, Dalton Castle, a lot of great people. Tomohiro Ishii’s a great former Ring of Honor World TV Champion.”
“When we’ve been booking the shows, I’ve been using Colt Cabana, both as a coach and a wrestler in Ring of Honor. So I looked at the Ring of Honor roster, and Colt Cabana’s a very logical challenger because not only has he held the Ring of Honor World Tag Team Championship, but he’s also somebody who’s been wrestling in the new Ring of Honor, the 2022 Ring of Honor. He’s undefeated, he’s won both of his matches, so I thought he’d be a very logical challenger for Chris, and it’s also a good match.”