It’s been quite a week for CM Punk and his fans in All Elite Wrestling. The injured AEW World Champion would make a big return, seemingly ready to take down the Interim AEW World Champion, Jon Moxley. This major match was seemingly going to be the main event of their next PPV, due to All Out being so close. Instead, we would see the match come as part of AEW Dynamite, and Jon Moxley won in shocking fashion, taking just 3 minutes to put down Punk.
CM Punk Was NOT Ready To Return To The Ring
Having suffered a broken foot during his match with Hangman Page at AEW Double Or Nothing 2022, Punk’s reign basically came to an end before it could begin. He’d hold onto the belt, with AEW bringing an Interim Championship to hold the place and set up the unification match. This was of course won by Jon Moxley at Forbidden Door.
The short match between Moxley & Punk has many believing that Punk was not actually ready to fully return from his broken foot. He barely did anything in the match, with a head kick rendering him unable to continue, allowing for Moxley to maul Punk and end the match in rapid fashion.
There’s a big chance that AEW simply wanted to get the unification match over with, not wanting to call their top star an “interim” champion any longer. Jon Moxley has really pushed himself in 2022 as the best wrestler in the company, and this past summer was really all about him. There was reports that Moxley was the one pushing for the match to come before All Out, adding to this theory.
Adding Fuel To The Eventual CM Punk Heel Turn
All in all, this was a huge success. It brought a lot of attention to AEW, put over Jon Moxley HUGE, and set some more groundwork for a potential heel run from CM Punk. While his first year in AEW with the ‘happy to be back’ character was fun, it’s gotten stale, and is a poor use of Punk at this point.
He’s always been better as a heel, and having a bitter and jaded Punk coming back with scorn for the fans and roster could be what AEW needs. Rematches with the likes of Hangman Page & Jon Moxley would likely come first, taking revenge on the man who injured him, and the man who embarrassed him – with a chance for even something like a face MJF vs. heel CM Punk possible.
Right now, we’re waiting on tonight’s AEW Rampage for the backstage comments of CM Punk as to what is coming next. It’s clear AEW has some plans here, with the backstage comments proving he’s still playing fair with AEW – and his recent issues were all an elaborate work.
Do you think CM Punk was not ready to return to the ring? Is a heel turn incoming? Let us know what you think in the comment section down below.
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