For months, it has been a wait-and-see approach with CM Punk’s future in the wrestling business following his brawl with The Elite at AEW All Out last year. He’s been sidelined with an injury that was surgically repaired as well.
The typical return timeline for someone being out with an injury like his is coming up soon, meaning he would be medically cleared in the near future to wrestle again. At one point, there was talk that Punk wanted out of his AEW deal and for the company to buy out the remaining time left on the contract. The hang-up was the non-compete period.
As recently as this week, it was reported that Punk had not mended fences with The Elite.
Since the fight, there has been a lot of speculation about whether Punk could return to WWE. There were recent rumors going around that Ace Steel, who was fired from AEW for his part in the brawl, had been at the Royal Rumble to broker a return deal for Punk.
In the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer reported that the rumors are false and pointed out that Punk is still under contract with AEW. Also, Steel wasn’t at the Royal Rumble.
