Jon Moxley vs. CM Punk Reportedly Still Main Eventing AEW All Out

For about the fifth time in the past month, the professional wrestling world stood still once again on Wednesday. The highly-anticipated unification match between Lineal AEW World Champion CM Punk and Interim AEW World Champion Jon Moxley went down on AEW Dynamite, two weeks ahead of its expected site. Moxley and Punk made their entrances halfway through the broadcast, meaning the once main event of AEW All Out was not even closing the television broadcast it was taking place on. This led fans to believing that something was up, and as evident by how the contest played out, that suspicion was on point.

Moxley squashed Punk in roughly three minutes. Like a shark in blood-infested waters, Moxley took advantage of the Punk foot once he began showing signs of re-injuring it. From there, it was all Moxley, as the Purveyor of Violence landed a pair of Death Riders to put the Best in the World away. The Cleveland crowd reacted with simultaneous gasps and cheers, shocked at the events that had transpired. Not since Goldberg steamrolled Brock Lesnar at WWE Survivor Series 2016 had an evenly-matched clash fallen so one-sidedly.

With AEW finally in the fast lane to All Out, the company is in an unfamiliar spot. Despite being a little over one week away, there is no announced world title match. That said, a new report from the Wrestling Observer Radio indicates that AEW is running back this match at the Chicago-based pay-per-view.

Dave Meltzer reports that a rematch of Moxley vs. Punk is set to headline AEW All Out, but isn't sure if the company will add any stipulations or when they will announce it. This would be Moxley's second All Out main event, as he successfully defended the AEW World Title against MJF at the 2020 edition of the show.

There's no word on Punk's current health. While some suspected that he had returned from injury too early and Dynamite's squash match was a way of getting the title off him quickly so he could continue to heal, the emphasis on his injury on both commentary and AEW social media have others thinking that it is just part of the storyline. The concept of doing the initial unification match early was reportedly Moxley's idea, and Punk "eventually agreed to it." This could be because AEW planned on running the squash at All Out, but favored doing it in Cleveland out of fear of the reaction that such a one-sided Punk loss would garner in Chicago.

AEW All Out takes place on Sunday, September 4th.