With CM Punk’s future in AEW remaining uncertain following his comments made at the AEW All Out media scrum and the backstage fight with The Elite, there has been speculation about him potentially returning to WWE.
As previously reported, AEW and Punk are talking about the promotion buying out his contract. It’s been noted that some close to him suggest that Punk has caught “the wrestling bug” again.
With Steve Austin being offered a match by WWE, likely for WrestleMania 39, there’s been some speculation about WWE potentially trying to get Punk to return for a match with Austin.
While speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer stated there are those in the company who do not want Punk back.
“I don’t know the legalities for Punk, but I think that’s the biggest money of all the matches he could do because Punk coming back to WWE would be big. There’s the injury that Punk might be able to make it to WrestleMania with a torn triceps. Everyone’s healing is different…and then there’s the legal issue.”
Meltzer later continued, “If you’re looking for the match that’s going to shake up the business, the Punk match is the one, but I don’t know that Punk will have a release (from AEW) – there’s just a lot of issues there.”
Meltzer speculated that you could have one night headlined by Punk vs. Austin and the other night headlined by The Rock vs. Roman Reigns.
“Punk’s return to WWE would be big if they could do it. There’s a big question. Do they want to do it? I know people in WWE who absolutely do not want him there, but they are not the people on the creative team. Everyone knows what happened in AEW, it’s like, ‘Do we really want that? Do we need that? No, we don’t need that. We don’t really want that.’ But at the end of the day, it’s not their decision. It’s the decision of Nick Khan and Stephanie and Paul (Triple H). Paul may just go in there and go, ‘Look what happened. We don’t need it.’ They don’t need it, and he may just do that. If it was Vince, Vince would do it, I think, with that kind of money at stake.”
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