CM Punk Announces Injury, Interim AEW World Champion To Be Crowned

An interim AEW World Champion is set to be crowned at Forbidden Door later this month after CM Punk announced he has suffered an injury which will require surgery!

On the post-Double Or Nothing edition of AEW Rampage, a teary-eyed CM Punk announced that he requires surgery just five days after winning the AEW World Championship at Double Or Nothing. Punk did not specify the exact injury he’s suffered nor detail how long he will be out of action for.

Whilst it was unclear at first if Punk would be relinquishing his title, Excalibur later clarified that an interim champion will instead be crowned at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door on June 26th. A battle royal will open the June 8th edition of AEW Dynamite where the winner will take on Jon Moxley in the show’s main event to determine the #1 contender.

The winner of that match will go on to Forbidden Door to challenge for the interim title, who Punk will face in a Unification match when he returns. Whilst no opponent was specified for Forbidden Door, the most likely candidate would be Hiroshi Tanahashi as he was set to face Punk for the AEW World Championship at the event as announced on Dynamite.

The announcement comes less than a week after CM Punk defeated Hangman Page at Double Or Nothing to win the AEW World Championship. Punk competed three days later on the June 1st Dynamite, teaming with FTR to take on Max Caster & The Gunn Club, his final match prior to the injury announcement.

At the time of writing, no competitors have been confirmed for the Dynamite battle royal to determine who will face Jon Moxley in the show’s main event.