CM Punk’s wrestling return is just over one week away. The Second City Saint is set to wrestle on the debut episode of AEW Collision, teaming with AEW World Tag Team Champions FTR to take on Ring of Honor Television Champion Samoa Joe as well as Bullet Club Gold’s Jay White and Juice Robinson. This will be Punk’s first match since AEW All Out back in September, where he defeated Jon Moxley to win the AEW World Title but tore his triceps in the process. There have been multiple reports about who Punk will be feuding with upon his return, and while this match has two of his interested opponents, it could be setting the stage for a different clash altogether.
According to Fightful Select, AEW is working to have New Japan’s KENTA appear at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door later this month The report adds that CM Punk is being discussed as KENTA’s opponent on the crossover super show.
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Punk and KENTA passed like ships in the night in WWE, as Punk walked out of the company after WWE Royal Rumble on January 26th, 2014. One day later on January 27th, 2014, KENTA reported to the WWE Performance Center for a tryout. He wouldn’t officially sign until June of that year.
These two will be eternally interlinked due to their finishing moves. KENTA is credited for creating the Go 2 Sleep, a fireman’s carry that drops into a knee strike to the face. Punk adopted the move early in his WWE run, retaining the name but changing the “2” to a “to.”
AEW could plant the seeds to this match next week. KENTA has been a member of Bullet Club since 2019, meaning he has a direct tie to both White and Robinson. While Bullet Club Gold is an offshoot of the proper Bullet Club, they still do exist under the same umbrella. Just as KENTA once attacked Moxley on an episode of AEW Dynamite and temporarily aligned with former Bullet Club leader Kenny Omega, the NJPW Strong Openweight Champion could reunite with White and Robinson en route to getting to Punk.
AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door goes down on June 25th. The current match card can be seen below…
AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door Match Card
- IWGP United States Championship: Kenny Omega (c) vs. Will Ospreay
- Bryan Danielson vs. Kazuchika Okada
