CM Punk was terminated by AEW last year following an internal investigation into an altercation he had with Jack Perry. In the months since we have found out names like Samoa Joe, DJ Whoo Kid, and AEW President Tony Khan were all present for the incident. The latter of which stated they felt their life was in danger as it all played out. Joe, for his part, felt it was nothing to get too worked up about.
This past weekend, Khan announced the return of a concept that had come to an end during Punk’s run with the company: The AEW rankings.
“The Rankings are coming back to AEW going forward, starting this month!” Khan exclaimed. “@AEW is having a very exciting January, and this is only the beginning of an amazing 2024 for AEW and our fans. Thank you all watching Saturday Night #AEWCollision right now on @TNTdrama!”
When AEW initially launched, Khan released weekly top-five rankings for the men’s, women’s and tag team championships. In the summer of 2022, the rankings stopped being released, and in October of that year, Khan noted in a Comicbook interview that he was reevaluating the concept. Since that time, the rankings have been removed from the website and have yet to be added back, despite Khan’s social media post.
On Wrestling Observer Radio, Bryan Alvarez noted that he had heard that CM Punk recommended to Khan that the AEW rankings be abandoned. No further reason was given.
This Wednesday night’s AEW Dynamite will see The Acclaimed defend their AEW World Trios Championships against Mogul Embassy’s The Gates Of Agony and Brian Cage, who just lost the ROH World Trios Championships to Bullet Club Gold. How ROH wins and losses will be counted toward the AEW rankings has yet to be addressed.