In what many felt was a shot across CM Punk's bow, Colt Cabana made his first appearance on AEW Dynamite since November 24, 2021 this week. For the better part of the year, there's been speculation about why Cabana had gone from a frequently used wrestler (even if it was just on Dark matches) to rarely appearing. This created a ton of heat backstage for Punk, which eventually boiled over during his post-All Out media scrum. The self-proclaimed Best In The World was suspended following an alleged backstage altercation with Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks. The Elite members are currently being teased for a return, while it seems like there's a new report concerning Punk every other day. Whenever pressed, CM Punk would deny that he had anything to do with Colt Cabana not being used on AEW television, going so far as to discredit any journalist who reported on that story.Yet Cabana wrestling on Dynamite earlier this week seemed to confirm an account that the likes of Dave Meltzer have stood by over the last two months. Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Bryan Alvarez points out that "Colt Cabana just happens to back on Dynamite right after this investigation gets wrapped up. It all stemmed from a story that [Cabana] couldn't be on Dynamite because of CM Punk. And now Punk is gone and here [Cabana] is." Meltzer replied, "I guess that there's a certain part of that story that people have been denying that was true from the start. Can I say that?" Dave continued, stating that "people will come to different conclusions, but the [Cabana & Punk situation] was what it was from the start, and [Cabana wrestling on Dynamite] proved that." It's worth watching the short exchange to see how heated Meltzer gets in his response.
AEW's Locker Room Seems Firmly Behind Colt Cabana
Following All Out, stories began to emerge about AEW's morale getting boosted with Punk and The Elite out of the picture. When Hangman "went into business for himself" during his feud with CM Punk, it was allegedly over aggravations surrounding Cabana and his usage. Page's promo allegedly eventually led to Punk's post-All Out media scrum atom bomb, which shook AEW to its literal foundation.
Fans of Punk will believe Punk, while supporters of Hangman, The Elite, and/or Cabana will believe that camp. The truth is somewhere between the two tales, as with most things. Yet it's tough to ignore just how behind Cabana the AEW locker room seemed to be. Multiple talents tweeted their excitement about Colt being back on television. At least two sources have indicated that it isn't a coincidence that AEW began using Cabana again as soon as their internal investigation into what happened at All Out was through. Between January 1 and August 20 of 2021 (a span of almost nine months), Cabana wrestled on AEW television 25 times, mainly on Dark. In the 14 months following Punk's debut up through this week's Dynamite, Cabana wrestled on AEW TV just 13 times total.
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Source: Wrestling Observer Radio