AEW's Plans For CM Punk's Return Revealed?!

AEW has made tentative plans for CM Punk to return to the promotion, with the former World Champion hopeful of working with Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks should the comeback reach fruition.

Fightful Select has reported as much, following on from this week's story that Punk wants to get back into wrestling. The outlet stresses that nothing is set in stone yet and things may end up changing, though plans had started coming together prior to even the earlier report.

Fightful's sources have indicated that AEW Dynamite's 21 June episode in Punk's Chicago, Illinois hometown will be "interesting", and "a date to look out for." The promotion has made working plans for Punk to return either at that show or around it, though announcing the comeback ahead of time has also been pitched. That may coincide with Warner Bros. Discovery's upfronts on 17 May.

Punk has been out of AEW since being served an indefinite suspension after his All Out 2022 brawl with Omega and The Bucks, which was provoked by the 44-year-old's incendiary press scrum attack on The Elite. Fightful has not yet heard of contact between the two sides. Although Punk had been pushing for a meeting with those involved at All Out, The Elite may not be so keen on working with Punk - and there is no word on whether or not progress has been made on arranging said meeting.

Plans also exist for a meeting between Punk and Chris Jericho, who has hardly been shy of hiding criticism of Punk in the All Out aftermath. As Punk and Jericho have had issues in the past, the possibility of the duo working together needs to be explored.

Interestingly, Fightful also notes that AEW's seemingly impending Saturday night show could be seen as a "soft roster split to accommodate the preferences of talent who wanted to stay separate of the particular situations." While this hasn't been communicated to talent, some have heard talk of the show.

Again, these tentative plans are far from concrete.