Report: People Within AEW Have "Lost Confidence" About CM Punk Returning Following Instagram Rant

CM Punk looks to be finished in AEW

By Aidan Gibbons
24 March, 2023 8:13 PM

While time is known to be the healer of all wounds, CM Punk may have just re-opened any issues he had within All Elite Wrestling following his deleted Instagram post on March 23 in which he called out the promotion, Chris Jericho and Dave Meltzer, and claimed Jon Moxley refused to lose to him.

In an update on the situation, Fightful Select have reported that sources within All Elite Wrestling "lost confidence that Punk would be returning after the March 23 post." This comes after those close to Punk had believed he was open to returning to AEW and maybe even wanted to in recent weeks. One person claimed that Punk was willing to apologise for his comments during the post-All Out media scrum but Fightful did note "there was a lot of context absent from that claim -- specifically to whom, or whether it'd be publicly or privately." Several did say that Punk had expressed "some form of regret" over the media scrum in general.

All Elite Wrestling and CM Punk have been in contact since the events of All Out and some close to Punk have claimed that he and Tony Khan have "spoken or had a couple of meetings." A meeting was planned for mid-February which was delayed due to Jerry Jarrett's funeral.

Punk suffered a torn triceps in the main event of All Out against Jon Moxley and the two-time AEW World Champion was reportedly hopeful of being fully healthy by late January. Those who know about the situation believe Punk would be able to get cleared for an in-ring return now or very soon at the latest.

As of the time of writing, Punk remains under contract with All Elite Wrestling.

Punk made his AEW debut in August 2021 and after a calm beginning with the promotion, the situation turned sour as 2022 progressed to the point that Punk and Ace Steel had a fight with Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks following Punk's infamous post-All Out media scrum. All involved were suspended, although The Elite returned at Full Gear and Ace Steel was fired. It is unknown if Punk remains suspended.