CM Punk Takes Subtle Jab at AEW in Post Saturday Night’s Main Event Photo

Following Saturday Night's Main Event, CM Punk posed for a photo with Jade Cargill, NXT Champion Ricky Saints, and WWE Champion Cody Rhodes, with his post simply saying, "Look at us." What might first seem like champions in WWE showing off their gold can be looked at as something much more when you realize that all of these wrestlers were in AEW not too long ago, and all four of them left or were fired due to their unhappiness with the company and how Tony Khan used them.

Is CM Punk taking a jab at Khan and AEW to show how happy and successful these WWE champions are without their former employer? It's sure easy to look at it that way since Ricky Saints was not part of Saturday Night's Main Event, and Punk's photo does not include other champions in the company like Women's World Champion Stephanie Vaquer, men's and women's United States Champions Ilja Dragunov and Giulia, or Intercontinental Champion Dominik Mysterio. Those four, after all, were never employed by AEW.

If CM Punk was aiming to take a subtle shot at All Elite Wrestling, it's a shame that NXT's two North American Champions, Ethan Page and Blake Monroe, weren't there as well, since both of them also left AEW only to quickly find success in WWE.

WWE's Top Stars Are Former AEW Talent

WWE shows a lot of disrespect to AEW, with Triple and TKO either refusing to mention the company or openly mocking them, while also counter programming them at every turn in an attempt to destroy the competition. That makes WWE look like a petty bully, but the way they are pushing former AEW stars shows that they respect the company's talent.

Cody Rhodes was being booed by the AEW fanbase, but in WWE he's the face of the company. Jade Cargill could never rise past the TBS Championship in AEW, but in WWE, although it took too long, she's the top champion on SmackDown. AEW didn't see much in Rick Saints and Ethan Page, and now they have both been NXT Champions and are thought to be future main event stars on the main roster. Blake Monroe is the only one who had major championship success in AEW as Mariah May, although that wasn't enough to keep her happy. A few years ago, fans wondered if AEW would take over WWE. In 2025, they have, just not in the way anyone thought.