CM Punk’s return to AEW stays a chance.
As AEW falls additional behind WWE this WrestleMania season, CM Punk return rumors have begun to floor as a determined AEW inches nearer to panic mode.
CM Punk staged one of the dramatic exits of his profession—a excessive bar—following certainly one of his best hours at AEW All Out 2022. Moments after successful the AEW World Heavyweight Championship, the previous WWE and AEW world champion went scorched earth on the corporate, its EVP’s (The Elite), Colt Cabana and Hangman Adam Web page at an AEW media scrum.
CM Punk, who was stripped of the title in consequence, hasn’t been seen wherever close to AEW programming since.
Tony Khan stays mum on the scenario, which has been topic to rumors about all the pieces from a contract buyout to a possible return. Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio prompt the latter was a chance.
“…Punk could come again,” mentioned Meltzer in the midst of a rant about how AEW’s lack of high babyfaces has affected its enterprise.
“He will probably be out there to come back again in the event that they need to use him in a few months. It’s not prefer it’s up to now sooner or later. In fact, in the event that they had been to carry Punk again, that will open up lots of points.”
AEW Dynamite this previous Wednesday stagnated at 899,000 viewers for a present most important evented by The Acclaimed’s controversial loss to The Gunn Membership. The published opened to 1.049 million viewers for MJF vs. Takeshita earlier than plummeting to 780,000 for the Tag Group Championship most important occasion.
Dynamite was down 20% in comparison with final yr, which featured CM Punk and Jon Moxley vs. FTR, and down 29% within the 18-49 demographic (386,000 viewers). AEW has averaged slightly below 934,000 viewers in 2023, in comparison with the 1.032 million it averaged by way of its first six reveals final yr. 4 of the primary six AEW Dynamite broadcasts eclipsed a million viewers in 2022, in comparison with simply one of many first six broadcasts in 2023.
WWE is in agency management of the wrestling struggle by the use of disciplined storytelling by way of each The Bloodline and Cody Rhodes’ money-drawing heroes journey—one which AEW followers rejected. With constantly sold-out reveals for Uncooked, SmackDown and Premium Reside Occasions, paired with robust rankings, WWE is beginning WrestleMania season with the identical momentum it had through the honeymoon interval of the Triple H Period, if no more. AEW, in the meantime, reeks of desperation. AEW Dynamite featured a number of polarizing segments that garnered the fallacious sort of consideration.
MJF’s in any other case stellar promo, one more villain origin story, resulted in several fans calling the Nassau police after the character prompt he dedicated vehicular manslaughter alongside a love curiosity when he was in highschool. The Acclaimed’s stunning loss drew the ire of the at-times rabid AEW fandom, which flooded AEW’s Twitter feed with negative reactions to The Gunn Membership’s large win.
A CM Punk return to AEW would characterize its newest shortsighted publicity stunt as AEW continues to be outclassed by a a lot hotter WWE in the intervening time. Punk’s disastrous impact on the AEW locker room can’t be neglected, however neither can professional wrestling’s lengthy historical past of unlikely returns. As Punk’s title reenters the wrestling area, Punk’s controversial actions have garnered criticism each out and in of AEW.
WWE high star Seth Rollins didn’t maintain again in a current interview with Nick Hausman of Wrestling Inc, the place he known as Punk a “most cancers.” Rollins doubled down on these feedback throughout a current look on Covino and Rich.
“Look, the underside line is it is the identical factor as with Logan Paul, Punk and Logan Paul are two completely different personalities however they’re each as egocentric because it comes,” Rollins mentioned whereas principally in character. “If you happen to’re not gonna assist, then I do not need you to be part of our trade. I do not need you to be part of our firm and that is all there’s to that.
“I will finish it on a optimistic notice with him, that man has given my profession a lot that it pains me to must say unhealthy issues about him as a result of he helped me out, he actually did,” Rollins mentioned in a extra poignant second.
“He is been an excellent man to me for lots of my profession however for no matter motive, the previous possibly six or seven years, he is in a unique headspace and we’re not on the identical web page. To see what he is accomplished and brought and brought and brought and it is at all times been about him? I am simply not a fan, I am not a fan. There’s a spot for him man, he is acquired quite a bit to present I simply want his head was in the best spot.”
CM Punk has not competed for AEW since All Out 2022. Relying on how determined AEW turns into whereas on the fallacious facet of a wrestling struggle, a return to the corporate can’t be dominated out.
