Former WWE World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk has been a name on the lips of many wrestling fans over the past few weeks as rumors surrounding his future began to swirl. Punk has not been seen on TV since the first episode of “WWE Raw” after WWE WrestleMania 42, where it looked like he was setting up a feud with Cody Rhodes, only to disappear from the screen completely. This led to rumors of backstage tension, politicking for different creative plans relating to his WrestleMania match with Roman Reigns, and frustration over the booking of his wife, AJ Lee, to name but a few.
All of those rumors have since been squashed, though Dave Meltzer did note in this week’s edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that everything between Punk and WWE isn’t as rosy as people would believe. Meltzer reported that Punk will be back on TV in the coming weeks, with the July 6 episode of “Raw” being the show Punk himself is angling for as that will take place in his hometown of Chicago, Illinois. However, when Punk does come back, he will be moving over to “WWE SmackDown” to finally kickstart the feud with Rhodes that was set up nearly two months ago. The question now will be if Rhodes and Punk feud over the Undisputed WWE Championship as Rhodes will be defending his title against both GUNTHER and Sami Zayn at WWE Night of Champions 2026 this weekend.
As for the backstage issues, Meltzer stated that to say that there are no issues at all would be false. He claimed that Punk has had issues since returning to WWE in November 2023, something many fans had expected, but that they aren’t nearly as major as people think. With that said, Meltzer mentioned that it’s not like there aren’t any issues at all when it comes to the “Straight Edge Superstar.”
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