Backstage News On WWE's Reaction To Colt Cabana's AEW Return

Colt Cabana's appearance on "Dynamite" last night, which was his first on the show in nearly a year, has wrestling fans buzzing. Apparently, it also grabbed the attention of people in WWE.

WrestleVotes tweeted: "Colt Cabana showing up on Dynamite last night didn't go unnoticed in Stamford. That's all I'll say on that right now..." Stamford, Conn., is where WWE headquarters is located.

It was believed by some members of the AEW locker room that Cabana's absence was in part due to CM Punk's influence in AEW. Cabana and Punk were one-time friends who had a well-publicized falling out. Punk blasted Cabana during the All Out media scrum, which led to a reported backstage brawl involving Punk, who has not been seen on AEW programming since. Reports of Punk's AEW contract being bought out surfaced a couple of weeks ago. It was recently reported that WWE has not officially ruled out Punk returning to the company following Paul "Triple H" Levesque taking over as Chief Content Officer and EVP of Talent Relations.

Punk previously wrestled in WWE from 2006 until 2014, winning five world championships. Punk left WWE and the professional wrestling business for seven years before he debuted in AEW in August 2021. 

On "Dynamite" last night, Cabana unsuccessfully challenged Chris Jericho for the ROH World Championship in a match that was open to any person who had previously held Ring of Honor gold. It was Cabana's first match on "Dynamite" since he was defeated by Bryan Danielson on November 24, 2021. Before last night, Cabana had only had three matches on AEW TV following Punk's arrival in the company.