On September 5th, 2022 there were many who predicted that CM Punk would never appear for AEW again. In fact, there were some who suggested that he might be done with wrestling altogether. (Again).
Just 24 hours earlier the recently crowned AEW World Champion launched a remarkable verbal attack on some of the company’s biggest names before getting into a backstage fight with The Elite. To add the icing on the cake he had also suffered a serious triceps injury in his match that night and would have needed an extended break anyway.
Over the next seven months, there have been rumours that he could even head back to WWE but that speculation led nowhere. Even if he did recently spice things up by visiting Raw completely unannounced.
This visit came against a backdrop of reports which claimed that Punk will be back in AEW on June 17th for the debut of the new Saturday night television show Collision which on night one will come live from the United Center in Chicago. The same venue where he made his debut for the company.
While there has been no official comment from either Punk or the company, it seems that the groundwork is being laid for that comeback.
On the May 10th episode of Dynamite, MJF referenced Punk by name as part of the build-up to his “Four-Pillars” World Title defence at Double or Nothing. This is the first time that Punk has been mentioned by name in months.
CM Punk Pushing For “Huge Match”
It had widely been believed that CM Punk would be working with Chris Jericho upon returning to AEW, but it appears that this might not be the case. It has been reported that the star is pushing for a “huge match” that doesn’t involve Jericho. Furthermore, a “marquee match” is also said to be in the works for Collision’s debut episode.