WWE's CM Punk Situation Just Got BLOWN WIDE OPEN (WWE News)
More on the recent speculation over CM Punk's WWE status.
With social media abuzz in recent days with some pretty outlandish CM Punk stories, there's now an update on the Second City Saint's WWE status.
For those who may have missed it, there has, as ever, recently been plenty of online speculation about Punk, including him being creatively unhappy in WWE, politicking to win at WrestleMania 42, being asked to take a pay cut, potentially looking to sue TKO, not happy at how AJ Lee had been treated, and various other outlandish claims. The source of this speculation seems to be certain X accounts claiming to be wrestling "scoopsters", though no trusted sources have backed up any of these stories.
The folks over at Fightful Select have done some digging into all of this, and have been "unable to verify literally any of these claims" when they asked about them, also adding that it usually takes a lot less than two months - the time since WrestleMania 42 - for the outlet to hear of any such incidents.
Of the "dozens" of people in WWE that Fightful spoke to, nobody had heard that CM Punk wanted out of his contract, nobody believes he was asked to take a pay cut, and one source noted that the Straight Edge Superstar has a story "coming up soon". And no, Punker's current WWE absence isn't due to any disciplinary reasons. In fact, new merchandise is being actively produced for the former seven-time WWE World Champion, and there are dates planned for Punk this summer.
As for AJ Lee, Fightful notes that she's not imminently in WWE's plans, but, as ever, that could always change. Again, it was reiterated that Lee was never intended to be a full-time performer when she returned to WWE last year, and the notion that CM Punk was unhappy with anything to do with AJ was "scoffed at" by internal sources. AJ Lee's return went as planned, with what we saw play out being pretty much what was planned to happen from the moment she returned, and nobody that Fightful spoke to had heard of any issues at all regarding AJ.
This Fightful report went on to address another X post that claimed CM Punk appeared to be saying his goodbyes at the Raw after WrestleMania 42. That claim was shot down, and this was not the case whatsoever. Fightful also reached out to WWE sources who have never been fans of CM Punk, and they likewise said they'd not heard of any of the above rumours or of the Chicagoan wanting out of WWE.
In amongst this recent online scuttlebutt, there was also chatter that CM Punk could be eyeing a sensational return to AEW. On that front, Fightful adds that, even if Punk never works for AEW again, there are people within Tony Khan's promotion who believe that bridge will be rebuilt one day.
So, hopefully that helps clear up some of the bizarre claims and "reports" that have been floating around social media over the past few days where it pertains to CM Punk and, to a lesser extent, AJ Lee. As reported by WrestleVotes earlier this week, Punk's current absence is simply a case of a talent having some scheduled time off.