Joe Hendry Spotted Training With WWE’s CM Punk & Former AEW Name

TNA World Champion Joe Hendry has been pictured training with WWE Raw star CM Punk and a former AEW name.

While they’ve yet to meet inside a WWE ring, Joe Hendry and CM Punk have been in fairly close proximity since the TNA World Champion began making appearances on WWE programming.

Both entering the 2025 men’s Royal Rumble, as well as competing on the card at WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas – the Best in the World and Hendry have now been pictured training together.

Taking to Instagram, Hendry shared a picture of himself, Punk and former AEW backstage producer Ace Steel at the latter’s ‘The Foundation’ wrestling school, along with the caption:

Learning from the best 👏 👏

Steel and Hendry currently work together in TNA – with Steel taking on a producer role with the promotion in 2024.

Hendry wasn’t the only one visiting The Foundation however, as Irish independent wrestler LJ Cleary – who is also Lyra Valkyria’s real-life fiancé – also shared a picture on Instagram alongside Punk.

In his caption on the post, Cleary described the opportunity as an “honor”, while heaping praise on Steel’s school:

Extremely cool to have the honor of training alongside @cmpunk at the @thefoundationofprowrestling last night! Thank you for the knowledge!

@acesofsteel provides one of the absolute best environments I’ve been part of to produce top quality Pro Wrestlers!

BITW 🤝MVP

Hendry is set to defend his TNA World Championship against Trick Williams at this Sunday’s WWE Battleground in Tampa, FL – which makes history as the first time the title will ever have been contested on a WWE PLE.

Cleary was in attendance at WWE Backlash on May 10 in St. Louis, being pictured in the front row watching Lyra Valkyria defend the Women’ Intercontinental Championship against Becky Lynch.

For more WWE news follow this link here.

Joe Hendry and LJ Cleary trained with CM Punk at The Foundation run by Ace Steel! pic.twitter.com/9iG1KHNv6W

— WrestleTalk (@WrestleTalk_TV) May 22, 2025

To make sure you stay up to date with all the biggest wrestling and WrestleTalk news, follow us on Threads by clicking this link!