Colt Cabana hasn't been on AEW programming, be that television, Pay-Per-View, or even broadcast on YouTube, since AEW Dark #133, when he wrestled in a losing effort alongside Alan Angels as “Dark Order” in a loss to The Butcher and The Blade. His last match on television came in November of 2021 when Bryan Danielson was looking to wrestle his way through the Dark Order en route to “Hangman” Adam Page and chose to embarrass “Boom Boom” in his hometown.

And since then? Well, Cabana has been wrestling on the indies, become a fixture of Ring of Honor 2.0, where he's performed at both of the Tony Khan-booked shows, and most recently joined a party of AEW performers who traveled to Germany in August in order to promote the company's Fight Forever video game and wrestle a few exhibition matches against the likes of Angelico, Christopher Daniels, and Evil Uno. Cabana actually won all three of his matches, including a tag team bout where he and “Player Uno” wrestled together under the Dark Order banner.

Will Cabana magically return to a proper, American-based AEW ring now that his arch rival Phillip Brooks, or as fans might know him, CM Punk, is expected to miss eight months with a triceps injury and may not even return after? Only time will tell, but based on his social media goings-on, it's clear Cabana is a bit more comfortable than he's been in months.

Now granted, this tweet was a two-parter, as Cabana then used it to promote a figure being made in association with Matt Cardona and Bryan Myers' Major Wrestling Figure Podcast, but this isn't the only AEW-related interaction the man born Scott Colton has posted recently. No, from liking Kevin Owens‘ anti-Punk tweet to a tweet of his own, suggesting that he deserves a shot at PAC's All-Atlantic Championship belt because of his undefeated streak in Germany, Colt has been on a roll lately, which is good, because his standing in the AEW Galaxy may have changed considerably thanks to the backstage pipebomb that shattered CM Punk's second reign with the World Championship belt before it could begin.

CM Punk's hatred for Colt Cabana may have changed both of their fates in AEW.

According to Dave Meltzer, CM Punk came into his backstage media scrum at AEW's All Out with an agenda. Though the founder of The Wrestling Observer did eventually state that “scripting” his expansive teardown of Cabana, “Hangman,” and The Elite EVP trio of Nick Jackson, Matt Jackson, and Kenny Omega wasn't quite the right word, Punk took a seat behind the microphone with a clear agenda and fired off the following promo on the professional wrestling world – as transcribed by of The Wrestling Observer – despite not even being asked about the subject directly:

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Matty Breisch ·

Tony Khan with a text bubble reading "What did TBS think?" next to CM Punk with the AEW Dynamite logo as the background.

Matty Breisch ·

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Matty Breisch ·

I haven’t had anything to do with Scott Colton in almost a decade. Probably wanted nothing to do with him even longer than that. It’s f*cking unfortunate that I have to come up here and speak on this when I’m on my time and this is a f*cking business. Why I’m a grown a– adult man and I decide not to be friends with somebody is nobody else’s f*cking business. But my friends, if I fall backwards, will catch me. Scott Colton, I felt, never would have.

My problem was I wanted to bring a guy with me to the top that did not want to see me at the top, okay? You call it jealousy, you call it envy, whatever the f*ck it is. My relationship with Scott Colton ended long before I paid all of his bills. I have every receipt. I have every invoice. I have every email. I have the email where he says — and I quote, ‘I agree to go our separate ways, I will get my own lawyer and you do not have to pay anymore.’ That’s an email that I have. And the only reason the public did not see is because when I finally had to countersue him, through discovery we discovered he shared a bank account with his mother. That’s a fact. And as soon as we discovered that fact and we subpoenaed ol' Marcia, he sent the email ‘Oh, can we please drop all this?’

Now, it’s 2022. I haven’t been friends with this guy since at least 2014, late 2013. The fact that I have to sit up here because we have irresponsible people who call themselves EVPs and couldn’t f*cking manage a Target and they spread lies and bullsh*t and put into the media that I got somebody fired when I have f*ck all to do with him, want nothing to do with him, do not care where he works, where he doesn’t work, where he eats, where he sleeps. And the fact that I have to get up here and do this in 2022 is f*cking embarrassing. And if y’all are at fault, f*ck you. If you’re not, I apologize.

What did I ever do in this world to deserve an empty-headed f*cking dumb f*ck like Hangman Adam Page to go out on national television and f*cking go into business for himself? For what? What did I do? What did I ever do? Didn’t do a g*dd*mn thing.

It’s not position to make it very f*cking clear. There’s people who call themselves EVPs that should have f*cking known better. This sh*t was none of their business. I understand sticking up for your f*cking friends, I f*cking get it, I stuck up for that guy more than anybody. Okay? I paid his bills until I didn’t and it was my decision not to.

I’m trying to run a f*cking business. And when somebody who hasn’t done a damn thing in this business jeopardizes the first $1 million house that this company has ever drawn off of my back and goes on national television and does that, it’s a disgrace to this industry, it’s a disgrace to this company. Now, we’re far beyond apologies. I gave him a f*cking chance. It did not get handled, and you saw what I had to do, which is very regrettable, lowering myself to his f*cking level. But that’s where we’re at right now. And I will still walk up and down this hallway and say, ‘If you have a f*cking problem with me, take it up with me.' Let’s f*cking go.

Geez, if only Punk would have listened to Tony Khan before All Out, he would have had any concerns about Cabana stamped out before it became an issue, as detailed by Sean Rueter at Cageside Seats:

There is certainly a perception out there that I don’t think is accurate that when I purchased Ring of Honor and also [as] some of the contracts were coming up and I was starting to make moves—whether it was renewing them in most cases or not renewing them or in some cases reassigning people—there was a misconception that was perpetuated unfairly that CM Punk had anything to do with me wanting to move Colt Cabana to the Ring of Honor roster when his contract came up.

I will clarify that, just to take it head on, that he had nothing to do with any of the contracts I picked up, whether I did or didn’t. But in particular, I did pick up Colt Cabana’s contract and gave him a similar contract to do different work. I don’t know if it was fair that that got perpetuated… I also didn’t think that was fair to Punk.