CM Punk Suffers Real-Life, Serious Injury Amid Possible Termination
In addition to starting a real-life backstage brawl, CM Punk suffered a real-life injury.
CM Punk injured his arm during a tope during his match with Jon Moxley Sunday at All Out. Punk will need surgery and miss a significant period of time, reports Dave Meltzer.
The injury necessitates that AEW once again changes title plans as Punk is unable to defend the AEW World Championship that he won on Sunday.
This is the second time since May that Punk won the belt and needed surgery immediately to follow.
Last time, AEW named an interim champion while Punk recovered. That was then. Now, Punk might not even return to the company.
Punk has a meeting with company officials at 4 pm on Wednesday to discuss his future. Sports Illustrated reports that AEW will decide to either fire or suspend Punk for his role in the backstage altercation with The Young Bucks's Matt and Nick Jackson and Kenny Omega, all of whom are on-air talents and EVPs at the company.
AEW has suspended The Bucks and Omega already. But Punk started the brawl and took a verbal blow torch to the AEW locker room during a presser. So there's a belief that AEW will discipline Punk to a greater extent.
AEW has hired an external third party to investigate the incident.
The timing couldn't be worse. Punk just won the title again on Sunday, restarting a feud with MJF. During the same event, Omega and The Bucks won the first-ever trio titles at All Out. Now, all four champions are either suspended or almost fired.
Further, the company's biggest televised event of the year, Grand Slam at Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York City, takes place in two weeks.
Punk will not be at Grand Slam if for nothing else his injury. It's unclear for how long AEW suspended Omega and The Bucks.
That's a lot of bad. Still, expect AEW to make it out of this mess in one piece.
AEW CEO Tony Khan is the best promoter/booker in the world. He's proven that for three straight years. As tough as losing Punk would be, Khan still has the best roster in the industry.
Presumably, AEW planned to have Punk, 43, pass the torch to MJF, 26, at some point anyway. Perhaps Khan has to expedite that plan, starting tonight.
As the story of Punk and MJF goes:
"The greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing the world that he did not exist.”