>>15332611>>15332630reminder that this is not true. some anon on here said it as a shitpost, then that NJPW podcast that makes shit up all the time repeated it because they like to pretend that they have scoops, then everyone else repeated it from there because they heard it from "official sources". fucking echo chambers.
what actually happened was KENTA was pushing for the match and Punk said that he'd do it as long as he would go over. KENTA agreed, and just said that he wanted to run an angle over it - he didn't want to get jobbed out clean and then never get mentioned again. That's when the whole thing got dropped, though sources differ on who veto'd it. Some said Tony because he didn't want arguably his biggest draw at the time in an extended angle with someone outside AEW. Others said Punk veto'd it - he never had any intention of working with KENTA and thought that KENTA was going to refuse to put him over in the first place. can't say for sure, but it definitely wasn't KENTA.