Nah. If it’s not this weekend it’s not happening.
As long as he is a free agent there will always be the prospect of him returning.
I do think personally though that if he doesn’t return by next year then it will no longer be as an active performer.
There will always be Punk stans trying to will it into existence which is not the same thing.
Theres no reason for WWE to do it. As a performer, he’s less than half of what he was ten years ago in the ring as well as a significant decline on the mic. He is, frankly, not very interesting if you take him purely on his merits in 2023. Only his past glories make him remarkable.
He’ll sell some t shirts but WWE already have plenty of people who do that who aren’t a massive side show of bullshit.
Tbf, his first year in AEW was probably his best ever as a performer so I don’t think that’s true.
He’s also one of the last genuine stars in the business. There’s probably three people I would put above him that’s in the WWE currently.
This just isn’t true at all
His program with MJF was his best program to date.
Obviously his program with Cena was his most popular one. And his match with Cena was his best ever. However, they ended botching that feud by inserting Triple H in it and then even squeezed in Nash.
His WWE title reign was half filled with filler and playing second fiddle to Cena who was actually main eventing the shows. There’s obviously some good things here and there in there but it’s mixed with a lot of bad. Stuff with Del Rio that never caught on, feuding with Johnny Ace, Henry, Kane, etc.
The best stuff out of his reign really came as a heel after he was aligned with Heyman. The Ryback stuff was a mixed bag. Rock/Punk was good.
In its totality, MJF/Punk was a 4 month program that never missed a bit. Kingston/Punk before that the same. Page/Punk was good. They even managed to make the whole Punk/Mox Rocky 3 thing work. That was the last time Dynamite managed to break the million viewer barrier.
If you’re a massive AEW fan, as you are (even when you claim not to be), I can see why you might see it that way. As someone who was a massive Punk fan before his return, I at least tuned into AEW to see his segments and matches and for me the MJF feud is where I lost interest in watching regularly. Part of that is MJF who isn’t close to being the performer he’s touted as. But it was already pretty stale from Punk at that point, his performances were very rinse repeat and designed to shield his shortcomings.
Not gonna lie, I had to search the thread to see what you said about AEW before.
You actually used to praised AEW.
Edit: You actually praised Punk back then. I am officially flabbergasted.
When exactly did you turn on them because it looks you were still praising some stuff in mid 2022. Was it that awful second(third if you count WWE) Jericho v Moxley program?
“Demise” is a suspect choice of words as well. AOL-Time Warner merger completely fucked the company as many people in that organisation did not want Wrestling on the TV. However Ted Turner who loved wrestling did. But the merger eliminated most of his influence. Effectively making the company and business worthless without a TV slot.
Does The Rock have a hand in Dark Side of the Ring now?
I believe he was involved in that Territories docuseries as well.
I didn’t document it 
Punk was one of my all time favourites. But I really lost patience with him when he came back from injury and went straight for being an utter dickhead. I found it quite illuminating that he does this wherever he goes. It makes some of the stuff that really pushed him into being a top draw lose some of its shine, because even the 2011 stuff is just a reflection of his innate tendency to blow stuff up to aggrandise his own ego when you understand that is the only thing going on. And in 2023, when he has declined enormously, he doesn’t have the sway for me to keep patience with it.
As for AEW, I couldn’t point to one thing, but it was the endless “ooooooooh is this a work or is it a shoot” shit on Twitter and that it started being necessary to have read through a load of bollocks online to understand what was going on on tv. It’s also, as you’ve said, been really poor stuff for the last year. The WCW like reliance on “legends” and ex-WWE has been a real put-off. I also can’t stand the lack of care they take to prevent people getting hurt in the ring.
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Guy Evans has already written the definitive account of how and why WCW is no more (and a complete history of it really). I think its like 18 hours long and well worth a credit on Audible.
It’ll be Lesnar. One person it won’t be is Punk.
“Here comes the money” 
NGL, I fully expected WWE to do the the most WWE thing back in 2022 and have Shane be Seth’s mystery opponent at Mania.
He’s like their go-to guy for those occasions.
I actually didn’t mind Full Gear lol.
I thought it would’ve been worse. Actually enjoyed the Texas Death Match. TBS triple threat and the tag title matches weren’t bad, either.
Survivor Series should be good. Just gotta avoid this thread for spoilers 
What are your current thoughts on MJF?
I think he’s exploring this whole avenue of being a face. He’s not doing it at all well, in my opinion.
The bad language, the coaxing of antisemitism and the overally edgy humour- PG13 it ain’t.
Still, he’s doing very well in the ring. Jumping over the ropes amd delivering a cutter would have been unheard of for MJF a year ago.
I was thinking that the biggest pop he’d ever get was if he left for the WWE only to return to AEW (That’s if TK hasn’t run it into the ground by then)
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In the ring, isn’t he then trying to much to not be himself?
I really get Miz vibes doing Bryan’s moves or Cena deciding to be a luchador in 2015.
His matches really make zero sense to me anymore and he actually used to be one of favourites in the ring in AEW before.
That spot where he decided to do an elbow drop on the floor because the table already broke was really silly. Saw somewhere he actually fucked up his hip and will not be wrestling till World’s End because of it.