After dealing with a great deal of unprofessionalism in AEW, CM Punk was fired earlier this year after an alleged backstage altercation with Jack Perry which supposedly left company President Tony Khan in fear of his life.
AEW has suffered greatly since then, with ratings for all its shows on the decline (particularly in the case of AEW Collision, a show which launched with the promise of revolving around Punk). That company's loss is WWE's gain, though, as RAW and SmackDown have benefited greatly since Punk made his return at Survivor Series: WarGames.
During Monday night's RAW, Punk signed with that brand and announced his intentions to compete in next year's Royal Rumble match.
However, that won't be his first match back in WWE (even thought it takes place exactly a decade after his final WWE match: 2014's Royal Rumble match).
According to PWInsider, Punk will make his WWE return at a non-televised live event on December 30 at the KIA Forum in Los Angeles. There, it's said he'll square off with The Judgement Day's "Dirty" Dominik Mysterio for the first time ever (they last shared the ring when Dom was a child and Punk was feuding with his father, Rey).
This is likely a way of giving Punk a chance to get back into ring shape and will build a lot of buzz for WWE on a night that, across the country in New York, AEW Worlds End takes place.
Recently, former WWE Superstar Chavo Guerrero shared his thoughts on what's proven to be a phenomenal 2023 for Dominick.
"Dominik Mysterio is killing it. He's doing so good. He's far beyond where he should be. As far as being good as well. It’s pretty cool to see them doing all this stuff. And we talked about that before. You get a lot of people especially because of Eddie and how monumental and like cult following he has and how many people see how really great he is and was. You get a lot of people really trying to capitalise off of the Guerrero name and Eddie's name. You'll see it all the time."
"I just saw it on our house show the other day I was on and they started doing Eddie spots. And I'm like, why are you doing that when I'm was next after you guys? Oh, yeah, we didn't think about that. I'm like, Guys, I get it. But you just did it. And everybody thought about Eddie. And they're like, Yeah, you're right. But I see that a lot. And anybody can do it. Dominik can do it and Rey can do it because of the history with them and stuff."
Stay tuned for updates on WWE's plans for Punk as we have them.