WWE: CM Punk Torn Triceps Injury & In-Ring Return Plans Update, Asuka Knee Injury Update, A&E Ratings, More News

Update on CM Punk Torn Triceps Injury Status & In-Ring Return Plans

As noted before, CM Punk has been out of action for WWE since this past January due to a torn pectoral injury. Punk made a surprise appearance at this past Sunday’s Clash at the Castle 2024 event in Glasgow, Scotland and got involved physically with Drew McIntyre during the WWE World Heavyweight Championship match at the event.

Dave Meltzer reported in a special preview edition of this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that Punk was medically cleared to do physical work at this past Saturday’s Clash at the Castle event. Meltzer reported that Punk’s comments at the post-show press conference about him not being at Monday’s RAW show because he was getting medically evaluated and hoping to be cleared by this Friday’s SmackDown show was just for storylline reasons.

WrestleVotes reported that their sources stated that WWE officials current plans are for Punk to make his official in-ring return at the end of July. It was reported that Punk is not likely expected to be medically cleared for WWE’s Money in the Bank 2024 event on July 6th but should be cleared in time for this year’s SummerSlam 2024 event on August 3rd.

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Asuka Knee Injury Status Update

As noted before, Asuka has been out of action for WWE since this past March due to a knee injury and underwent surgery earlier this month.

Asuka recently provided a video update on her YouTube channel stating that excluding prep time, her surgery lasted ninety minutes and was discharged from the hospital the following day.

Asuka also stated that her doctor had informed her that her surgery was a success.

No other details were given regarding the specific nature of her injury nor a potential timetable for a return.

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A&E WWE Programming Ratings – June 16, 2024

This past Sunday’s Biography: WWE Legends episode drew 230,000 viewers on A&E. This episode also drew a 0.05 rating in the 18-49 demographic.

This was down compared to the June 2nd episode’s 288,000 viewers and 0.08 rating.

This episode focused on ECW.

Source: Programming Insider

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WWE News & Notes

As noted before, Monday’s WWE RAW show in Corpus Christi, Texas featured Uncle Howdy and the new Wyatt Family making their surprise return to WWE. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that Bo Dallas portrayed Uncle Howdy, Erick Rowan portrayed Ramblin’ Rabbit, Dexter Lumis portrayed Mercy the Buzzard, Joe Gacy portrayed Huskus the Pig, and Nikki Cross portrayed Sister Abigail.

As noted before, Monday’s WWE RAW show in Corpus Christi also featured Drew McIntyre “quitting” from WWE following CM Punk costing him the chance to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at Clash at the Castle 2024. Following his segment, McIntyre deactivated and deleted his social media accounts as part of his current “quitting” storyline.

In regards to the official name of Uncle Howdy’s new group, WWE revealed that Howdy’s new group name is called “Wyatt Sicks” based on recently released merchandise for the group.

This past Saturday’s WWE Clash at the Castle 2024 event reportedly generated around 100,000 searches and a #7 ranking on Google for that night, according to the Wrestling Observer. Dave Meltzer reported that this was up compared to this past May’s King & Queen of the Ring 2024 event that had failed to rank in the Top 20 and had generated under 20,000 searches.

WWE recently announced that Sami Zayn will be holding a new comedy event called “Sami Zayn & Friends Do Toronto” on July 4th at the Danforth Music Hall in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was also announced that tickets for this upcoming comedy event will officially go on sale starting on Wednesday, June 19th.

In a recent interview with the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast, WWE Hall of Famer The Undertaker gave his thoughts about being interested in making future cameo appearances in WWE but not for coming out of retirement for another match. The Undertaker stated “Yeah, I could do it. I couldn’t do it to the standard that I wanted to do it. But, I mean, yeah, there’s certain things that I don’t feel like I would be able to do. After I did it [the WrestleMania 40 appearance], I came back and I was like, ‘I’m good now. I don’t need to do this again.’ Not saying that I wouldn’t — if they needed something like that again — but I’m not going to have a match or I’m not coming out of retirement.” (Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com)

WWE recently announced that the #1 Contender 25-Man Battle Royal match for the NXT Championship will kickoff tonight’s NXT show.

WWE also confirmed that CM Punk will be making an appearance at this week’s WWE SmackDown show on June 21st in Chicago, Illinois.

WWE also announced two new matches for this week’s WWE SmackDown show in June 21st in Chicago:

• Men’s Money in the Bank Qualifying Triple Threat match – Randy Orton vs. Tama Tonga vs. Carmelo Hayes
• Men’s Money in the Bank Qualifying Triple Threat match – Kevin Owens vs. Andrade vs. Grayson Waller

WWE also announced three new matches for the card of next week’s WWE RAW show in June 24th Indianapolis, Indiana:

• Men’s Money in the Bank Qualifying Triple Threat match – Braun Strowman vs. Chad Gable vs. Bronson Reed
• Women’s Money in the Bank Qualifying Triple Threat match – Lyra Valkyria vs. Shayna Baszler vs. Kairi Sane
• Karrion Kross vs. Kofi Kingston