AEW’s Hook has been having a skyrocketing run in his career at this point. The Handsome Devil has come a long way to prove his mettle in the company and is currently eyeing an FTW Championship win against Chris Jericho at the biggest stage of All In at London this week. That said, his achievements ain’t stuck in the squared circle. The effortless charisma and the enormous presence made the 25-year-old a massive marketable star inside and out.

To take the full effect of what he brought to the table, Tony Khan released his merchandise, and it immediately hit the blockbuster success button at a very brief notice. But did he cross the bar CM Punk has set as AEW’s top merchandise seller during his ever-controversial tenure? Let’s dig deeper to know the answer.

Hook beats CM Punk’s AEW record of being the top merchandise seller

Be it any locker room dispute or setting up any professional record, Punk has been a trailblazer in the Jacksonville-based company. Khan took the Devil to his surveillance back in January 2019, but the epic AEW-CM Punk relationship quickly turned sour for the Seventh City Saint rubbed a lot of insiders the wrong way with his no-nonsense savage attitude. However, it’s not that Punk only harmed the promotion, as it has popularly been viewed.

If we keep aside the big trouble with the Elite at AEW All Out, Punk didn’t contribute much toward maligning the goodwill of the business. Rather, his outspoken nature and gigantic star power brought a lot more eyeballs to the products, something very visible in his merchandise sales in the company. He kind of set an undisputed record of being the top seller of the company for more than four months in the year 2021.

Then Hook came in and broke it seamlessly, recording more numbers of sales. As per the official data by Pro Wrestling Tee, Hook, not Punk, had the top-selling t-shirt in their store. The New York-born eventually became the cult favorite of the AEW fanfare and started to be safely exposed to the world’s title picture, but the journey wasn’t very plain sailing.

Hook has been the face of a grave social media controversy with WWE’s Jinder Mahal

In the recent past, before WWE released its Indian-origin superstar, Jinder Mahal, AEW star Hook got caught in an unwanted social media skirmish. Mahal, the modern-day Maharaja, didn’t see Hook’s epic rise in the business in a very positive light. After Hook was given the title opportunity against Samoa Joe, critics started to get under his skin on social media. Addressing the issue publicly, Khan called out WWE fans for showing double standards.

He unnecessarily dragged up the Canadian star saying he doesn’t deserve a title shot against Rollins, but fans are silent on this. Countering this attack, Mahal sarcastically asked who Hook was bringing down his credibility as a whole. The war of words stretched far, but it didn’t matter in the end as both the stars lost their respective matches. Shortly after, Mahal also had a WWE walkout for once and all.

Now, given Hook is on the verge of trying his luck on the FTW championship, it will be interesting to see if he can beat up all the odds to become the new champion in the house. What’s your take on Hook surpassing CM Punk’s all-time highest top merchandise sales record in AEW? Let us know in the comments