CM Punk Interested In Facing Former Rival In AEW
CM Punk has somebody in mind for his AEW return and it’s an accomplished wrestler that is very familiar to him.
The AEW return of the former two-time AEW World Champion CM Punk is coming soon. It is well known at this point that AEW is launching a new weekly TV show called Collision on Saturday, June 17th with Punk expected to be a big part of it.
During last night’s edition of AEW Dynamite, AEW Owner Tony Khan teased yet another big announcement for next week, which is likely going to be the debut of Collision on June 17th. Whether AEW specifically advertises CM Punk’s return for Collision is unknown right now.
A recent report noted that Punk had a marquee match in mind for his AEW return, but no name was given about who that match would be with.
In an update today, Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp is reporting that sources close to Punk believe he wants to wrestle a former rival from his Ring of Honor days, Samoa Joe.
Samoa Joe hasn’t been on AEW TV since losing the TNT Title to Wardlow at Revolution in March. Joe is on ROH TV as the ROH TV Champion, but the ROH audience is a lot smaller than AEW these days. Joe did wrestle at the ROH tapings last weekend as well.
The report notes that they don’t know if CM Punk’s idea to face Samoa Joe is for just one match or if it’s an extended story that could lead to multiple matches between the two veterans who each started wrestling over 20 years ago.
It was also not confirmed if AEW has approved the CM Punk idea to face Samoa Joe. According to Fightful, AEW sources won’t talk about Collision in general at this point.
It’s been a long time since CM Punk has wrestled Samoa Joe. It goes back to August 2005. Shortly after that, Punk would sign with WWE and Joe would sign with TNA. Their paths never crossed again. When Joe signed with WWE in May 2015, Punk had already left the company over a year earlier in January 2014.
Samoa Joe signed with AEW in April 2022, CM Punk was already on the roster, but the two men didn’t cross paths at all.
When CM Punk returns to AEW TV either on the first episode of Collision on June 17th or sooner, it will be his first AEW appearance since winning the AEW World Title at All Out in September 2022. That was also the night when he went on a press conference rant, got into a backstage fight, and suffered a torn triceps that required surgery.