Rumor Roundup: CM Punk’s WWE future, AEW contract news, Raquel Rodriguez, more!

Speculating on the rumors surrounding pro wrestling is a favored pastime of many fans, perhaps second only to actually watching the matches. In this daily column, we take a look at the latest rumors being churned out by the pro wrestling rumor mill.

Important reminder: Rumors are just that — rumors. None of this has been confirmed as fact, it’s just circulating around the pro wrestling rumor mill. We track rumor accuracy in a weekly feature called Rumor Look Back you can find here. Remember, take it all with a grain of salt.

Rumors for the Day:

• CM Punk “is in the process of trying to get his [WWE] deal restructured from a money and years standpoint”, according to Ibou of WrestlePurists. Punk is said to feel that, provided everything continues to go well, he never wants to work anywhere else and has even been telling people he’ll be with WWE “forever”. Ibou summarized what he’s been hearing about Punk by saying, “Basically, he wants this to work out, he wants to get paid, and then he wants, when it’s time to slow it down, to slow it down and just run NXT.”
• Ibou also reported that Buddy Matthews signed a new AEW deal. PWN added that Matthews actually re-signed months ago. PW Insider confirmed those reports, saying that Matthews inked his new contract in February. There’s no word from any of them on the length of the deal.
• Insider also says that despite reports to the contrary, Malakai Black’s existing AEW contract runs through 2025.
• Samoa Joe is already filming season two of Twisted Metal, per PW Insider. Production is scheduled to run through October, but “there will be breaks in between certain episodes.“ It was announced on AEW Dynamite last night that Joe is out of action “indefinitely” as a result of Chris Jericho’s forklift attack.
• There’s been talk within WWE about Raquel Rodriguez returning “in the near future”, per Insider.
• One more from WrestlePurist’s Ibou: Keith Lee’s AEW deal is up “relatively soon”.
• MVP shot down a report he’d recently tried out for non-wrestling roles at WWE with a post on X: “I just read on Twitter that I was being considered for a new position and had some “tryouts” to be a producer or on commentary. Were those “tryouts” in 2020? When I was actually a producer and… doing commentary? Ahhh those interwebs. .”
• WrestleVotes has heard that featured matches on WWE’s quick tour of Japan this week include: Cody Rhodes vs. AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura for the WWE Championship, Jade Cargill, Bianca Belair & Meiko Satomura vs. Damage CTRL, GUNTHER vs. Rey Mysterio, and Kevin Owens & LA Knight vs. Tama Tonga & Solo Sikoa.

If you have heard of any interesting rumors that you’d like to add, feel free to post them in the comments section below. Just remember they are rumors and not confirmed as fact, so please take them as such. And check our weekly Rumor Look Back here to keep track of how often rumors turn out to be correct.