Major Update On CM Punk's AEW Return
The Second City Saint's AEW return edges ever closer.
With this past week bringing reports that CM Punk had been pitching for his AEW return, there now comes a further update on the Second City Saint's future.
Per Fightful Select, the current working plan is indeed for CM Punk to return to AEW, and for the Straight-Edge Superstar to make that return on or around the 21 June episode of Dynamite... which just so happens to take place from Chicago's Wintrust Arena.
This report notes how there have been discussions of possibly announcing this return ahead of time, potentially as soon as the Warner Upfronts on 17 May.
Additionally, Andrew Zarian of the Mat Men podcast (via WrestlingNews.co) reports that AEW will be launching their new Saturday evening show - AEW Collision - at some point in June, with that offering to be a two-hour affair which will air from 8pm to 10pm EST. While nothing has been confirmed as of this writing, Zarian is under the belief that the first episode of Collision may air on Saturday 17 June from the aforementioned Wintrust Arena.
The belief right now is that AEW Collision will be used to facilitate a loose roster split, with CM Punk expected to mainly feature on this Saturday show as a way to keep him separate from talents who may not want to work with the two-time AEW World Champion.
On top of this, a meeting is planned to take place featuring CM Punk and Chris Jericho, with those two having had plentiful issues in the past. Notably, Jericho referred to Punk as a cancer, whilst the Chicago native more recently called the JAS leader a liar and a stooge in a since-deleted Instagram post.
Of course, all of this comes on the back of the infamous Brawl All last September. There, the post-PPV media scrum saw CM Punk lambast Colt Cabana, 'Hangman' Adam Page, and the company's EVPs, which in turn led to Punk and Ace Steel getting into a physical altercation with the Young Bucks and Kenny Omega. All involved were immediately suspended by AEW, with Steel soon fired.
While the Bucks and Omega have long since returned to action, CM Punk has been recovering from a torn pec. In terms of that particular elephant in the room, it's been reported that Punk is keen to work with the Elite as and when he returns to the ring, though the EVPs themselves were not previously interested in that idea.