Tony Khan: CM Punk Incident Was A Turning Point In AEW

CM Punk exited AEW in 2023. This departure arrived after quite a bit of controversy that made headlines at the time.

After he departed from AEW, The Best in the World returned to WWE at Elimination Chamber 2023. Currently, he is the World Heavyweight Champion in WWE and is on his way to main event WrestleMania 42 Night 2.

While he thrived in WWE, AEW’s Tony Khan’s focus was on ensuring that the company survived and continued to succeed after CM Punk left.

Tony Khan explained how CM Punk’s departure impacted AEW

While speaking on The Coach and Bro Show, Tony Khan revealed that after CM Punk departed from WWE, Khan’s outlook towards the business changed. He wanted to come back from the setback and keep All Elite Wrestling thriving.

I came out of that wanting for AEW to succeed and for AEW to continue, more than anything, and what we were able to do to rebound from that. Obviously, I wanted, in a perfect world, everybody to be able to get together and work together. I don’t think that was possible. But I also think that we’ve been able, in the past few years, to really keep AEW strong. To me, that was the most important thing.

I learned a number of things. I probably would do things differently, say things differently, but like you said, it wasn’t something I was expecting. You’re very experienced in wrestling, and you know that was a very much a welcome to wrestling in some aspects of it, because that was for me. I’d been in wrestling for almost four years at that point, but that was certainly a first for me, and as with all firsts, you’re gonna learn from them and hope not to ever have a repeat.

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