More on CM Punk’s Omission from Warner Bros Discovery’s Upfronts & AEW Collision Press Release

As noted before, Warner Brothers Discovery’s Upfronts presentation earlier today featured the official announcement of a new AEW weekly television series called AEW Collision. Besides the official debut announcement for AEW Collision, WBD’s Upfronts were also notable for the lack of any mention of CM Punk and his removal from the initial press release for Collision.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that there is some truth to the recent rumor that CM Punk and AEW once again are at odds with each other over issues related to Ace Steel’s potential rehiring to the company.

Johnson reported that Punk and others within AEW had expected that Steel would be rehired to the company and work as a producer for their upcoming Collision series. AEW officials reportedly recently made the decision to not go ahead with that idea resulting in Punk becoming upset causing issues between the two sides leading to his removal from the press release for Collision.

One person spoken to reportedly stated that they believe that MJF’s inclusion in the graphic for Collision was meant to be the replacement for Punk’s spot. Johnson reported that this is something that he has yet to confirm with his sources.

Johnson also reported that his sources within Impact Wrestling had stated that the company had been interested in bringing in Steel for a producer tryout several weeks ago. Steel reportedly passed up the offer leading to Impact officials believing that he was either WWE or AEW bound.

Fightful Select reported that their sources confirmed PWInsider’s report that AEW did have talks regarding the potential of rehiring Steel to the company. It was reported that Jericho had brought up this idea during his recent meeting with Punk. It was also reported that AEW officials held a meeting earlier this week with Punk and informed him that they would be willing to rehire Steel and have him work directly with Punk but also made it clear that Steel would not be allowed to be at AEW television tapings. Punk’s reaction over the news reportedly was one of him not being in agreement.

It was also reported that their sources have yet to confirm if the issues with Steel was the reason for the lack of anything related to Punk at WBD’s Upfronts on Wednesday.

In a follow-up report, Fightful Select reported that the videos for WBD’s Upfronts were filmed ahead of time and WBD officials made the decision to not feature any talent out of respect to the on-going writers strike. In regards to Punk’s removal from the final version of the press release for Collision, it was reported that Punk had previously informed AEW CEO Tony Khan that he did not want his return for Collision to be made well ahead of time but it is currently not known if this played any role in his removal from the press release.