16 XT Won't START

[littlebigwater]

Have spark, fresh fuel to spark, clean air, compression. Battery is charged and starter cranks hard. I did have the plug cable off so my asshole bike stealing co-working couldn't ride it while I was out of town. I just read trying to start without plug grounded can mess with the cdi. This true? How to test? Anything else? Tried searching forums, but search function isn't working. Thanks