By working his way out of not just WWE but also AEW, CM Punk finds himself at a very interesting crossroads in his professional wrestling career.

Though there's still a chance that he could latch on… somewhere and continue his in-ring professional wrestling career if he so chooses, heading to Impact, Japan, or maybe even back to The Fed, any major promotion that signs the “Best in the World” is doing so in spite of how his last two professional wrestling runs turns out not because of them and may heavily protect themselves against another implosion, contractually speaking, as a result.

In the modern professional wrestling landscape, Punk is borderline unprecedented, as there isn’t another star of his caliber with the same reputation, excluding those who have been canceled for very legitimate reasons, and as a result, fans aren't really sure how to feel about the whole situation.

There is, however, an example from the past that, according to Kevin Nash on his Kliq This podcast, who could serve as a sort of cautionary tale for Punker and his fans: The Ultimate Warrior.

“He’s already put himself on the mantle right next to The Ultimate Warrior,” Kevin Nash said via Ringside News. “Go shake the ropes buddy, you punched Luke Perry’s son, sucker punching his son.”

Is Nash correct? Has Punk become as toxic as The Ultimate Warrior back in the day, aka a performer who was beloved by the fans but burned every bridge that got him there before being cast aside for performers who are actually willing to play ball? Maybe yes, maybe no, but if Punk does resurface and the same pattern of behavior follows him from the AEW locker room to his new place of business, the similarities and thus comparisons will grow increasingly harder to ignore.

Chris Jericho gives an insider's perspective on what happened with CM Punk.

Speaking of CM Punk's final days in AEW, fans have long clamored for more information about what exactly went down at All In and how things were able to escalate so quickly from a “cry me a river” call by Jack Perry on the pre-show to a backstage fight, to a match versus Samoa Joe on the main card, to a firing less than a week later.

Though we may never get the full picture of what went down for legal reasons, Chris Jericho did comment on his personal interactions with Punk at All In and even shared a few thoughts on the “Best in the World's” run in AEW, too.

“I don't want to dwell on this or talk about, but I should address it. CM Punk, no longer with AEW, Wembley was his last match, which what a way to go out if you're going to go out. I did speak to him, briefly, I was going to do a frankensteiner off the top, and I know that he does that sometimes, so I was curious if he was going to do it. I went and talked to him for a bit, asked if he was going to do it, he wasn't. I told him I was going to do the GTS, with a straight face, and I think for a second he thought that I was going to. I was joking, of course. I did see him that day,” Chris Jericho said via Fightful.

“It's a regretful moment, what happened, but Tony Khan made his decision. CM Punk was a big part of AEW from the time he was here and if you're going to go out, he went out on top by having this big match with Samoa Joe in a sold out stadium. That's my thoughts on that.”

With a week officially passed since Punk was fired with cause from AEW, it's hard not to look back at what happened and not be in total shock at what went down. In just two weeks, Punk went from the top guy on Collision, one of the top guys in AEW, and a likely future challenger for MJF thanks to his status as the “real” AEW Champion to a man with no job who may never wrestle again for a mainstream promotion. Though it's hard to look back at his run in AEW without it being tainted by the ending, if cooler heads would have prevailed, we wouldn't have to be looking back at it at all but instead towards the future with plenty more stories to be told. Like Jericho said, a regrettable situation all around.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpIpGpyVUjk