It’s a Monday so it seems appropriate we start up the CM Punk news cycle. If you have not heard, The Second City Saint’s AEW return could be coming soon, and a meeting between he and Chris Jericho ahead of it is reportedly on the table. Whether the two men will discuss working together or are merely clearing the air ahead of Punk’s return is not yet known.
There is, of course, the issues that exist between Punk and the AEW EVPs, The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega, following their backstage AEW All Out altercation. Punk is reportedly willing to working with the trio but, as it stands, that willingness does not seem to be reciprocated. During the most recent Wrestling Observer Radio, Andrew Zarian shed some light on where things stand between Punk and AEW.
“I know for a fact that Warner has been told he’s coming back,” he said. “They are very much aware of the situation. He had recently said he is willing to return to AEW and he wants to make it work. So, the issue here is that he’s willing to work with The Elite members, I know as of the time I was told, and as of early this week, there was no intention on the other side, maybe Kenny a little bit more than the Bucks but I know they do not want to work with him. There’s been no dialogue between the two sides either regarding sitting down and making this work.”
Along with news about Punk’s return has come speculation that AEW could be launching a Saturday show soon, something Haus of Wrestling has been hearing about for weeks now. The show could see a different roster than Dynamite, giving Tony Khan the ability to put Punk on one show and The Elite on another. On his own show, The Mat Men podcast, Zarian spoke about the rumored AEW roster split between the two shows.
“The plans have been put in place to possibly have a tentative Saturday show to be the ‘soft’ brand split,” he claimed. “When I used that term yesterday on Mat Men, I was told that it’s less soft than I’m putting out there. I guess there will be people that are predominantly on the other show, on the Saturday show.”
Credit to F4W Online for the transcriptions in this article