The WWE made a series of roster cuts this week, including cutting JTG, Brodus Clay, and Aksana.
CM Punk was notably not among the cuts.
Punk seems to be retired and not planning on coming back anytime soon or ever, but things might not work out that way.
If he does decide to return to professional wrestling, the WWE may be able to renew his contract in order to prevent him from joining another league.
“Since a lot of people have asked about this related to Mysterio and last week’s issue, all standard WWE contracts are written with the clause that the company can extend the contract based on the wrestlers not performing for an extended period of time due to an injury,” according to The Wrestling Observer.
“So WWE doing the automatic renewal of his expiring contract is something specifically mentioned in his deal and in all standard deals. I haven’t heard of it being used for anyone else. They could do that with Punk in July should they choose. The advantage is that they could keep him from working for anyone else. The disadvantage is if they did renew him, they'd have to pay him his downside, which right now, they wouldn’t be paying him since he’s refusing to work.”
Punk hasn’t spoken publicly very much about what happened but did say that “it feels good” to be retired earlier this month.
“I get to do fun stuff like bowl and paint chairs and play whiffle ball with Bill Murray,” Punk said of a Chicago charity he’s involved in.
“It was super fun and for a great cause. You’ve got athletes and actresses and musicians and all kinds of people painting chairs. I’m super happy to be a part of it.”
