AEW president Tony Khan has denied that CM Punk had any involvement with Colt Cabana being re-assigned to Ring of Honor.
While promoting this Sunday’s All Out pay-per-view, Khan spoke with Forbes contributor Blake Oestriecher about the perception that Cabana was moved to Ring of Honor to placate Punk or that Punk had any involvement with that choice:
There is certainly a perception out there that I don’t think is accurate that when I purchased Ring of Honor and also [as] some of the contracts were coming up and I was starting to make moves—whether it was renewing them in most cases or not renewing them or in some cases reassigning people—there was a misconception that was perpetuated unfairly that CM Punk had anything to do with me wanting to move Colt Cabana to the Ring of Honor roster when his contract came up.
I will clarify that, just to take it head on, that he [Punk] had nothing to do with any of the contracts I picked up, whether I did or didn’t. But in particular, I did pick up Colt Cabana’s contract and gave him a similar contract to do different work. I don’t know if it was fair that that got perpetuated…I also didn’t think that was fair to Punk.
Cabana left Ring of Honor at the end of 2019 and joined AEW where he was a member of the Dark Order, he has also noted in the past that he did some producing work for AEW. His contract came due earlier this year and reportedly signed a new deal with a designation for Ring of Honor, which was purchased by Khan earlier this year.
Punk and Cabana had a sizable fallout out in the wake of their November 2014 ‘Art of Wrestling’ podcast where Punk detailed his run in WWE and leaving the company earlier that year. A lawsuit was launched by Dr. Chris Amann with both listed as defendants in the suit. In June 2018, Punk and Cabana prevailed in the trial. In the aftermath, Cabana and Punk both filed lawsuits against one another, which were later dismissed.
