Regardless of discipline, CM Punk likely to give up world title tonight due to ‘serious’ injury

CM Punk suffered a “serious” injury at All Out, meaning his tenure as AEW World Champion is likely over whether he remains in AEW or not.

Here we go again.

As fans and industry observers await final word on whether CM Punk will be suspended or let go from AEW after his post-All Out press conference rant ended up sparking a fight with the Young Bucks and Kenny Omega, another wrinkle has been confirmed by Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer: Punk is probably too injured to continue on as champion anyway.

While several reports over the last 48 hours have suggested Punk was hurt in either his All Out match against Jon Moxley or the altercation later that night, Meltzer tweeted out that it was likely the former and that it was “serious.”

Meltzer later clarified that if the AEW World Championship situation is addressed on AEW Dynamite in Buffalo, it will be without Punk in attendance.

That comes as little surprise. Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated published a story Wednesday morning suggesting that every person thought to be involved in the fight was suspended, which was later backed up by additional journalists including Meltzer and Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp. The unresolved questions were mainly about what would happen to Punk, who just won back the AEW World Championship at All Out, and longtime trainer and friend Ace Steel.

In terms of the title, it may not matter what Punk’s final fate is for now. There’s also no small amount of irony involved because when Punk won the world title the first time in May, he almost immediately suffered an injury and was out of action for just over two months.

In that case, AEW let him keep his championship and had a tournament to crown an interim champ, which ended up being Moxley. Considering the uncertain future of Punk and whether he’d be on the shelf for an extended period of time even if he stays with AEW, that seems unlikely this time.

Expect the world championship situation to be given some clarity tonight on Dynamite, which is shaping up to be one of the most talked about episodes of AEW programming ever.