MJF Reveals His Plans For CM Punk In AEW

MJF has revealed what would have happened in his rivalry with CM Punk if the WWE star had not been fired from AEW.

MJF and CM Punk’s rivalry is one of the best in AEW’s short history and will be best remembered for their brutal and bloody Dog Collar match at Revolution in 2022.

That match kickstarted MJF’s short-lived feud with Wardlow before he disappeared from the company only returning to confront CM Punk after he captured the AEW World Championship at All Out in September 2022. As everyone knows too well, that was the event that saw Punk involved in a backstage fight with The Young Bucks and an injury suffered in his match led to him vacating his title anyway.

When CM Punk returned to AEW in the summer of 2023 he called himself the ‘Real World Champion’ while MJF was AEW World Champion which would have surely led to a showdown between the two men. However, CM Punk was fired by AEW following another backstage fight, this time with Jack Perry at All In.

MJF Would Have Bided His Time With CM Punk

Speaking to WrestleTalk, MJF was asked if he would have faced CM Punk again in AEW if Punk’s firing hadn’t happened and he revealed he would have but only if Punk was carrying gold:

I would have won if we wrestled again. I think everybody knows that. I’m a very smart individual, I’ve actually mentioned this in regards to Swerve as history repeats itself, I’m a man that… I like to pick my spots. It’s very obvious that I could have beaten him again as I had already beaten him twice in Chicago.

But why would I beat him when there was no World Title on the line? I feel the same way about Swerve. Physically speaking, I’m still dealing with an old nagging injury of my left shoulder. Shane Strickland is absolutely on fire right now, as we’re gonna see on August 25 when he wrestles Bryan Danielson in what could be Bryan Danielson’s retirement match – which is massive.

So I’m aware of the fact that, if Bryan Danielson wins, that’s good news for me, because that dude’s body is hanging on by a thread and the scary thing is, even with the way his body is now, that dude is still better than 99.99% of professional wrestlers bell-to-bell in that ring. He can decimate a man and rip them in half.

I’m also better off wrestling Swerve after that match is over for the World Title because Danielson is going to hurt him, they’re going to hurt each other. So I’m just picking my spots and I’m waiting. I’m looking forward to being a double champion – being American Champion and the World Champion. But to answer your question, if CM Punk was still in my company, I would have definitely waited for him to have been the World Champion.

MJF will defend his AEW American Championship at All In 2024 when he faces Will Ospreay in Wembley Stadium. Either way, it seems MJF will have his sights set on the winner of the AEW World Championship match between Bryan Danielson and Swerve Strickland which will also take place in London.