Could Steve Austin vs. CM Punk Finally Happen in WWE?

By Connor Casey

With WWE reportedly courting Steve Austin for another match, fans have been speculating over what dream match "The Texas Rattlesnake" could be booked for in the near future. One name that keeps coming up is CM Punk, with the argument being that the match is so big (and was teased back in Punk's initial WWE run but never followed up on) it could be the thing that gets Punk back in a WWE ring one last time after his contract issues with AEW are sorted out. But the situation is nowhere near that simple, as Dave Meltzer explained on Wrestling Observer Radio this week. 

"If you're looking for the match that's going to shake up the business, the Punk match is the one, but I don't know that Punk will have a release (from AEW) — there's just a lot of issues there," Meltzer said (h/t WrestleTalk).

Does WWE Want CM Punk Back?

Punk hasn't been seen on AEW programming since he won the AEW World Championship at All Out, then turned around and blasted high-ranking members of AEW's company during the post-show press conference that led to a locker room fight with Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks. AEW has refused to comment on the situation, but Meltzer has reported that the two sides are negotiating a contract buyout that would see Punk leave the promotion a little over one year after he arrived. This has led to speculation that Punk might go back to WWE, but it's still unclear if WWE would even want Punk back.

"I know people in WWE who absolutely do not want him (Punk) there, but they are not the people on the creative team," Meltzer said elsewhere in the same episode (h/t WrestleTalk). "Everyone knows what happened in AEW, it's like, 'Do we really want that? Do we need that? No we don't need that, we don't really want that'. But at the end of the day, it's not their decision. It's the decision of Nick Khan and Stephanie and Paul (Triple H). Paul may just go in there and go, 'Look what happened, we don't need it'. And they don't. They don't need it, and he may just do that. If it was Vince, Vince would do it I think, with that kind of money at stake."

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