Tony Khan Dodges Questions About CM Punk And The Elite's AEW Futures

CM Punk and The Elite have not made live appearances on AEW TV since they were pulled from the company's programming following a backstage brawl the night of the All Out 2022 pay-per-view. It followed comments by Punk during the post-show media scrum about The Elite and the job the three have done as Executive Vice Presidents of the company. Since then, Ace Steel has been released by AEW. He was the only person involved in the fight who was not an active in-ring competitor. In the last few weeks, vignettes have been played during AEW programming which shows The Elite being erased from AEW history, likely teasing their return.

As of this writing, no teases of Punk returning have been seen on any AEW programming. On the November 2 edition of "Dynamite," speculation was increased about Punk not returning when Colt Cabana, who Punk is not on good terms with in real life, returned to answer Chris Jericho's open challenge for the Ring of Honor World Championship.

In an interview with "Sports Illustrated," AEW CEO Tony Khan was asked about Cabana's appearance possibly meaning Punk will not be returning to AEW. In his response, Khan went off-topic, never directly answering the question.

"Chris Jericho has been wrestling a number of former Ring of Honor champions, competing against a number of ROH's greatest stars like Claudio Castagnoli, Bryan Danielson, Dalton Castle, Bandido and now, Colt Cabana," Khan said. "It's been an exciting series of matches against some great wrestlers who have legendary histories in Ring of Honor, and we're seeing the ROH stars trying to stop Jericho from desecrating that title."

When asked if Omega and the Young Bucks are close to returning following the vignettes of them being shown on TV, Khan stated, "I cannot comment on that."