Rewatching Punk's promos upon return it was very clear in retrospect you were seeing a cranky, paranoid, resentful man and it made his onscreen stuff all the more compelling. Never one to color inside the lines, Punk was the chaotic figure wrestling needs but can't handle. Its to a company's benefit that you have people working there that are agreeable, and professional, but there is a genuine unpredictability missing from wrestling that you only get when there's people on screen that can do anything at any moment, even unbeknownst to the promoter Hansen, Bruiser Brody style. AEW played with fire putting an ornery and bitter CM Punk that was confined to his room for 2 months on national TV, and it made for great viewing. To me its what makes AEW AEW because taking real risks like that had been removed from the business. All obvious statements about it being unprofessional aside, the post All Out scrum with Punk was one of the greatest promos I've ever heard, and had it been turned into a money drawing program after the fact, I would've declared that wrestling had it's fucking balls back. Wasn't meant to be, the abrasiveness and misdirected anger that made Punk great ended up being his undoing, but that's how it is sometimes. This is what made 2 Pac special, or Kanye West special, before he went off the deep end. If given the chance to play with fire again I'd still do it in a heart beat, because the alternative is nowhere near as cool or interesting, even if it is safe.