CM Punk’s run as AEW World Champion has hit a first hurdle in the road.
Just five days after becoming champion, the 43-year-old punk announced Friday night’s episode of Carnage that he suffered an injury that will require surgery. Punk is not giving up the AEW World Championship, but an interim champion will be crowned in his absence.
Punk described the injury as a broken “wheel”. He promised to come back bigger, faster, stronger and hungrier than ever.
With tears in his eyes, Punk addressed the crowd on Carnage. He told fans he had good news and bad news for them.
“The bad news is that I am injured and need surgery. Two or three things are broken. The biggest is my heart because I love nothing more than playing for all of you, and I wanted to have one hell of a run. That’s the bad news,” Punk said.
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“The good news is that I can still do all of this. I told you I was going to go until the wheels fell off. Well, the wheels are still there, they haven’t fallen off. It’s just that one of them happens to be broken. But I come back from worse. I felt better than today, but I’m here to tell you that I also felt much worse. It’s a bump in the road. It hurts. It hurts like hell. I want to fight for you.
Punk won the AEW World Championship from Adam “Hangman” Page in the main event of double or nothing on Sunday. Punk then suffered the injury on dynamite this Wednesday. He teamed with FTR to defeat Max Caster, Austin Gunn and Colten Gunn on the show.
Interim AEW World Champion to be crowned at AEW and NJPW co-promote Forbidden Door à la carte on Sunday, June 26.
AEW has announced that a battle royale will open dynamite next Wednesday, with the winner advancing to face Jon Moxley in the episode’s main event. The winner of this match will face an as-yet-unannounced opponent in the interim title fight at Forbidden Door.
Punk vs NJPW star Hiroshi Tanahashi was originally slated for Forbidden Door.
Seven years after leaving WWE, Punk made his return to professional wrestling when he signed with AEW last August. This is his first world championship since 2013.
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