Current AEW Champion On CM Punk’s Return – “Hopefully No Negativity Happens”
AEW TBS Women’s Champion Kris Statlander hopes CM Punk’s return will be positive for everyone involved.
CM Punk is on his way back to AEW, but the road to his return hasn’t been a smooth one.
After being suspended last September as a result of the now-infamous brawl following All Out, Punk’s AEW future was in doubt. In April, it was reported that plans were in place for him to return at long last, and it was expected that he would be a featured part of the company’s new Saturday night program called Collision.
However, when Collision was officially announced in May, Punk’s name was nowhere to be found. It later emerged that he was once again at odds with his employer over the return of his friend and trainer Ace Steel, who was fired after the All Out brawl. According to reports, Steel was rehired by AEW months ago and has been working remotely with the understanding that he would return to the road when Collision was up and running. The decision was made for him not to return to the road, driving a wedge between Punk and AEW.
The latest dissension caused uncertainty about Collision’s debut, but after the issues were put to rest and NDA’s were signed, Tony Khan announced that CM Punk would be returning on the show’s June 17th debut in Chicago, IL.
Speaking in an interview with Nick Hausman for Haus of Wrestling, AEW TBS Women’s Champion Kris Statlander commented on Punk’s return, saying that she hopes it will be positive for the company.
“I’ve always had decent interactions with him. If this is going to help us out, then that’s fantastic. I can only hope that with all these announcements going on and this new show starting that we only experience positive outcomes from this. Hopefully no negativity happens. We all get frustrated with our jobs sometimes, and that’s understandable, but I do hope that everything that we do going forward is for the better of AEW, and I think that’s the most important thing.”
Statlander recently became TBS Champion when she made her surprise return from injury to defeat Jade Cargill at Double or Nothing.
h/t Fightful