WBD Reportedly The Driving Force Behind CM Punk’s Rumored AEW Return

For several weeks, there has been intriguing speculation due to the possible connection between the rumored return of CM Punk to AEW and the reported development of a new AEW weekly show on Saturday nights called AEW Collision.

Writing in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer has now theorized that this may very well be the case. He noted,

“As things stand right now, the return of C.M. Punk is scheduled for a 6/17 show at the United Center in Chicago, which being a Saturday night show, is likely the debut of the new weekly show.

The rumor of the new show name is AEW Collision, based on a trademark the company took out some time back, when the talks with WBD for the new Saturday show got serious.

At press time everything was not finalized, but the building is booked and it likely will be announced very shortly, when the Punk deal and the TV deal are finalized. Obviously with the building deal in place, the TV deal has to either be done or they must be almost certain of it.

The decision on Punk returning was made many weeks ago, although there was a snag two weeks back that has evidently been worked out.”

Meltzer also reported that Warner Bros. Discovery has been a major driving force in Punk’s return. Whether the new Saturday show was conditional upon CM Punk returning or not is not known, but it was definitely a major factor. He wrote,

“Multiple people have said that WBD wanted Punk back as the star of the new Saturday show, although others have been told differently. We do know that he was extremely important in this deal but whether the deal was incumbent on him, we’ve hard both ways.

One person outside the company has seen correspondence indicating that WBD definitely wanted him back and other things that have happened in recent weeks very much behind-the-scenes have indicated to us that Punk being back is, if nothing else, very significant in everything.”

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