More on AEW’s Dropped Plans for CM Punk vs. KENTA Match for Forbidden Door II

As noted before, AEW had been working on plans for a potential match between CM Punk and KENTA to take place at next Sunday’s Forbidden Door II event in Toronto, Canada. During Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite show, it was announced that CM Punk would be facing off against Satoshi Kojima in an Owen Hart Foundation Cup tournament match at the event.

Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that KENTA had informed AEW and New Japan Pro Wrestling officials that he was not interested in facing off against CM Punk at the event. It was reported that word of KENTA’s decision had started to make its way around backstage in AEW at this past Saturday’s Collision show. AEW officials reportedly were still working on potential plans for who would be Punk’s opponent or if he would even be working at the event at that time.

Those spoken to within NJPW confirmed that there had been plans for a match between KENTA and CM Punk for the event but as of this past weekend, that was no longer going to happen. No official reason reportedly was given from NJPW’s side over this decision but it was made around the same time as a recent tweet from KENTA that stated “Kenta vs Punk is never going to happen.”

In regards to Punk, it was reported that he was open to the idea of the match against KENTA and there were other options being considered for him as of this past Saturday. Those spoken to within NJPW reportedly stated that most of NJPW’s top talent were already booked for other opponents for the event who were not officially announced at the time.

In regards to AEW’s plans, it was reported that AEW had been working on big plans to build up the hype for this potential match on AEW programming prior to KENTA backing out. Other NJPW talent who were being pitched as potential opponents reportedly included Kojima, El Phantasmo, and Jeff Cobbs. Besides competing in a match, AEW officials reportedly had also considered the idea of Punk being one of the announcers on commentary instead for the event.