People close to CM Punk believe that he will appear at the Collision premiere on June 17 and Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select reported on Tuesday that negotiations between CM Punk and AEW have been productive.
Additionally supporting this was a comment made on the F4W Board by Ryan Frederick of The Wrestling Observer:
Frederick stated, “I can’t speak for Bryan because I don’t know what info he’s been given, and there’s definitely been a lot of different info being passed around with this whole thing. I can only say that, based on what I was told at midnight ET, Punk is good to go for Collision, that he signed an NDA pertaining to Brawl Out (which was described as necessary for him to return but also a difficult negotiation, but he knew he had to do it and there’s a lot of people he doesn’t want to let down), and a couple of other legal documents that were also necessary for him to return that protects AEW in case of another bad situation. There’s one thing I’ll keep quiet on because it’s nothing major, but this whole thing is basically now him playing ball because he says he loves AEW and wants to help the company grow and he knows what will happen if there’s another big issue.”
Fightful confirmed that while Daily’s Place was not specifically mentioned to them, backup locations were discussed. This is in response to Dave Meltzer’s report that Daily’s Place would be a backup location if they moved Collision out of Chicago.
For what it’s worth, Daily’s Place is connected to the Khan family, so it makes sense that it would serve as AEW’s fallback location, just as it did during the pandemic. When the venue first opened a few years ago, Jaguars Owner Shad Khan (Tony’s father), Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry, and Daily’s President and CEO Aubrey Edge made the announcement.
Obviously, with Punk back in the fold, they can proceed with plans to perform at Chicago’s United Center. Tony Khan is expected to reveal the venue for the first Collision show tonight on Dynamite.
