CM Punk left All Elite Wrestling a long time ago, and his departure from the Tony Khan-led promotion was the thing that made his WWE return possible. Now, The Straight Edge Superstar is again doing what he does best in the Stamford-based promotion, but it seems like his fans in AEW have still forgotten how his tenure with the promotion ended.
The most recent example of this thing was witnessed on the May 29 edition of Dynamite when the crowd started chanting for The Best In the World. This moment took place when The Elite, Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada, and “The Scapegoat” Jack Perry were present inside the ring to talk about the future of the TNT Championship after the injury to Adam Copeland, aka Edge.
But, during their segment, the AEW crowd started changing CM Punk, and Okada had a brutal response to those chants. In an unexpected turn of events for the fans who were trying to raise their voice in support of the Chicago-born superstar, the former NJPW performer straight away said to them, “Shut up bitches.”
https://x.com/WrestleOps/status/1795992237588799738?t=y2IVTFchb-el-6jcvZs5RA&s=19
This was an absolutely brutal response from Kazuchika Okada, but it looks like the pro wrestling world hasn’t really liked what he did. The reason being that the reply he made has terribly backfired on him, as the WWE Universe as well as the Jacksonville-based promotion’s fans’ have started sharing reactions to what the Japanese wrestler said to the crowd.
Fans lash out at Kazuchika Okada for his response to CM Punk chants
As soon as Okada’s brutal reply to the AEW crowd on Dynamite’s latest episode went viral, fans started lashing out at him for his response to CM Punk chants. Claiming that what he did during the segment was not necessary, someone from the pro wrestling community said, “None of this makes any sense.” (Via: X)
Trolling the former NJPW star badly for what he said to the crowd on Wednesday’s show, an audience member wrote, “He’s so bad, so overrated.” “CM Punk owns AEW,” another fan commented. “Heel Okada is legendary stuff,” a member of the fanbase said while talking about how having Kazuchika on the dark side is the best possible direction for this in-ring star.
AEW seems to be slowly recovering from the damage caused by CM Punk’s departure
Even though The Rainmaker has generated a lot of heat for his remarks against fans changing Punk’s name, as he’s a heel, it’s probably a good thing. In fact, in general, AEW seems to be slowly recovering from the damage caused by CM Punk’s departure from the Tony Khan-led promotion in September 2023.
All Elite Wrestling’s CEO was the one who announced the termination of CM’s contract with the company, and since then the organization has been facing a lot of issues. From decreasing ticket sales to low attendance and the bad quality of the on-screen product, all these aspects played a role in the downfall of the Jacksonville-based promotion.
Also, the way Tony Khan handled the whole situation around the brawl between Jack Perry and Punk was questioned by a lot of pro wrestling enthusiasts. His decision to air the backstage footage of the brawl also grabbed negative reactions, and people targeted Khan for focusing on the past rather than looking at ways to improve the performance of AEW.
But it seems like Tony has finally learned his lesson, and the Double Or Nothing PPV was a prime example of it. The event felt like a wind of fresh air in the Tony Khan-led organization, and if the company continues to put such good storylines and matches on display for their fans, it’s sure that they can once again regain the spot of being a prominent name among the biggest professional wrestling promotions.