Report: AEW Still Have Plans With CM Punk Despite Warner Bros. Discovery Claims

In a historic day for All Elite Wrestling, it was announced that the promotion will be launching a new two-hour TV show - AEW Collision - with the show set to air every Saturday night from June 17 on TNT in the United States. 

Reports over the past several weeks have claimed that CM Punk is scheduled to make his return on the inaugural episode of Collision and he will be the star of the new Saturday night show. His return to AEW was expected to be announced in the coming days, and possibly even today as part of the AEW Collision reveal during the Warner Bros. Discovery upfronts.

Warner Bros. Discovery even emailed a press release to media outlets that mentioned CM Punk as a headliner for Collision alongside Miro, Samoa Joe, Thunder Rosa, and Powerhouse Hobbs. The link took outlets to the actual press release that didn't mention Punk and had the four aforementioned talents along with Andrade El Idolo listed as the Collision headliners. 

Since then, Connor Casey of ComicBook has reached out to Warner Bros. Discovery and they stated, "CM Punk is not affiliated with TNT's AEW Collision," fuelling speculation about Punk's future with AEW and whether anything had changed in regards to his planned return. 

In an update, Fightful Select has reported that as of today, "there are still plans with CM Punk" and there were "active content plans with Punk as of this week." Punk was included in the press release announcing the launch of Collision until earlier today, when he was removed. The two-time AEW World Champion has been in regular contact with Tony Khan and Punk didn't want to be announced for Collision well ahead of time. It is unknown if that caused him to be pulled from the press release.

As opposed to not being affiliated with Collision, Punk instead appears to be deeply involved in drawing up plans for the Saturday night show. The 44-year-old has been pushing for FTR and Andrade El Idolo to be involved with Collision, which is currently the plan, and Ace Steel could even be set to make a return to AEW. Steel was fired over his involvement in Brawl Out with Punk and The Elite.