The ESPN.com interview with CM Punk and Cody Rhodes’ tweet on Friday night gave fans more reason to wonder if Punk and All Elite Wrestling have secretly come to a deal for him to make a surprise appearance at the All Out pay-per-view in Chicago, IL.
If you are one of those people hoping to see Punk in Chicago, then you will have to do so at Starrcast III because, at this point, there is no deal for Punk to appear at All Out. In fact, everything said in the ESPN.com interview by Punk was 100 percent his true feelings and everything Cody said on Twitter on Friday is actually how he felt and this is not a work.
For those of you that missed it, Punk says that he did hear from people in AEW via text. Punk also indicated that he wasn’t too thrilled with his name being teased by AEW. It is true that Tony Khan mentioned Punk at the Double Or Nothing post-show media scrum but he only did so because he was asked about him.
Cody said on Twitter that there were text messages sent only when they weren’t able to communicate by phone and there was one in-person meeting. Cody went on to say that he wouldn’t be surprised if Punk went back to WWE but the door is open for him to sign with AEW. None of what Cody said was meant to come across as a work.
Dave Meltzer discussed this on Wrestling Observer Radio. Meltzer said, “This is not a work. He doesn’t wanna wrestle.”
Meltzer noted that there was a lot of speculation about Punk and AEW when Punk signed on to do Starrcast. Punk said that he signed on for Starrcast because it’s close to where he lives. Essentially, the Starrcast appearance has no connection to All Out.
“They want him, they’ve contacted him and he isn’t interested,” Meltzer said about AEW’s interest in Punk. “They made another pitch for this pay-per-view and I’m sure they’ll try to make another pitch for [the TNT show] and he says no. That’s where it stands.”
Punk can always change his mind but, as of now, there is no deal in place.
As far as Punk’s relationship with people in WWE, Meltzer noted that when the Punk vs. Dr. Chris Amann lawsuit was going on, Punk cut ties with everyone and that included Paul Heyman.
Heyman is the person who saw the most in Punk when WWE was considering cutting Punk in the mid-2000s when he was in Ohio Valley Wrestling. Never say never and time heals all wounds in wrestling, but even with Heyman as the Executive Director Raw, I can’t see Punk ever considering going back to WWE. Then again, people said the same thing about Bret Hart, Ultimate Warrior and Bruno Sammartino and they all eventually went back to WWE.
Click here to read what Punk said during his ESPN interview and click here to see Cody’s tweet.
