WWE: AJ Styles Mid Foot Ligament Injury Update, CM Punk WWE Absence & Return Plans Update, More News

AJ Styles Mid Foot Ligament Injury Status Update

As noted before, AJ Styles has been out of action for WWE since this past October due to a mid foot ligament sprain injury.

Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp reported in a Q&A article that his sources stated that both Styles and WWE officials have been steadfast in the claim that Styles was legitimately injured.

Sapp reported that if Styles injury is actually just a work, then it is one of the most protected ones in recent memory.

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CM Punk’s WWE Absence & Return Plans Status Update

As noted before, CM Punk is currently on a break from WWE since this past October.

Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp reported that his sources stated that CM Punk’s break was something that Punk had already planned to do at this point in the year.

In regards to the potential of Punk traveling to Saudi Arabia for WWE shows, Sapp reported that Punk had made it clear in the past that he does not want to work at WWE’s Saudi shows and that seems to still be the case for him.

Sapp reported that WWE officials did not have any plans for Punk to travel to either of their trips to Saudi Arabia this year and is still not expected to return back to WWE until after November 11th.

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WWE News & Notes

As noted before, this past Wednesday’s WWE NXT show drew 619,000 viewers and a 0.17 rating on The CW. Prior to the start of the show, WrestleVotes reported that their sources stated that CW officials were expecting high ratings for NXT’s show and for the numbers to be the highest since its premiere show on the network. This past Wednesday’s show was neither in regards to overall viewership nor key demographic ratings.

This past Wednesday’s WWE Speed show on Twitter featured Bron Breakker and Sheamus going to a time limit draw resulting in both being eliminated from WWE’s newest #1 Contender’s tournament for the WWE Speed Championship. As a result of the draw, the Dragon Lee vs. Akira Tozawa Semifinal Round match will now be the Finals for WWE’s current tournament.

The Verge reported that Netflix will be delisting almost all of it’s interactive titles as of December 1st. It was reported that out of the 24 interactive titles, only four will remain on the service after this month. Among the titles scheduled to be delisted includes WWE’s Escape The Undertaker interactive special.

As noted before, Netflix recently made several roster-related requests for WWE’s RAW brand for RAW’s upcoming move to the streaming service in January of 2025. Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp reported in a Q&A article that his sources stated that the idea of a new WWE brand split is not 100 percent dead despite Netflix requesting talent from SmackDown to be on their RAW shows. Sapp reported that those spoken to stated that WWE officials have not made any decisions yet for the rosters for their RAW and SmackDown brands in 2025. Sapp also reported that talent have not been told of any plans regarding which brand they will be working for next year.

WWE recently released four new videos to their WWE Vault channel on YouTube. The first new video was a “Unseen footage of Yokozuna’s WWE debut as The Great Kokina.” The second new video was a WarGames match of Dusty Rhodes, Dustin Rhodes, & The Nasty Boys (Brian Knobbs & Jerry Sags) vs. The Stud Stable (Terry Funk, Arn Anderson, Bunkhouse Buck, & Col. Robert Parker) from WCW Fall Brawl 1994. The third new match was a WarGames match of Sting, Davey Boy Smith, Dustin Rhodes, & The Shockmaster vs. Sid Vicious, Big Van Vader & Harlem Heat (Kole & Kane) from WCW Fall Brawl 1993. The fourth new video was a “Story of The Legend Killer (2003-2006).”

As noted before, Pro Wrestling NOAH talent Yoshiki Inamura recently joined WWE’s Performance Center and will be working for WWE’s NXT brand as part of WWE’s current working partnership with NOAH. Inamura recently reflected on Twitter about his arrival to WWE’s Performance Center. Inamura stated “Finally made it here!!! Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity. I will keep moving forward!!! Arigatou gozaimasu [thank you].“

This past Wednesday’s WWE NXT show at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania featured Nunzio making an in-ring return appearance for WWE in a losing effort to Tony D’Angelo for the NXT North American Championship. In a recent interview with the Busted Open Radio podcast, Nunzio gave his thoughts about his recent appearance in NXT and his match being shorter than he had wanted. Nunzio stated “I thought it was great. I actually went with Francine. She didn’t really know anybody and was like, ‘I want to go with you.’ I said, ‘Honestly, I know who they are but I don’t know anybody either.’ Everybody was very nice and respectful. I talked to a few guys and always try to help out with a couple of matches. I talked to some people, trying to get my own match going. A little shorter than I wanted. Some people went over and stuff. I’m not paid by the hour. Take the minutes off, it’s okay. I love when they say that, ‘I’m sorry I cut your two.’ Okay, so I do three. It’s what you do in that five or six minutes.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

As noted before, WWE had been in talks in with gambling regulators from several states in 2023 to have legalized gambling approved in their states for WWE matches. These talks resulted in several state gambling regulators not being willing to give their approval for it. In a recent interview with CNBC Sport, TKO President Mark Shapiro stated that the idea of legalized betting on WWE matches will not be happening. Shapiro stated “Not happening,” Shapiro said. “It’s not happening. We’re scripted. Look, years ago I ran Dick Clark Productions. We had enough challenge keeping the American Music Awards and the Golden Globe winners under wraps [even] with an auditor that was there. We’re not going to be asking Triple H — Paul Levesque, who runs our creative — to keep his scripts so under wrap that we can start sports betting. It just doesn’t jive.” (Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com)

In a recent interview with Sports Illustrated, AEW talent and executive QT Marshall gave his thoughts about his talks with WWE for a potential contract in late 2023 that ended up rubbing him the wrong way and led to his decision to return to AEW. Marshall stated “I had one conversation with somebody that doesn’t even work there anymore. I just got rubbed the wrong way during the conversation. It was like, ‘Hey, yeah, oh yeah, that’s great. All right. I told him, like, yeah, all right, we’ll stay in touch’. To me, it was like I’m not staying in touch. I had all that time between November and January, so that on January 1 when that conversation did arise or January 2, whenever it was. It was like I kind of knew plus I had already spoken to Tony before that, so I kind of knew. I think I was just looking for a reason to say no.“

In a recent episode of the Hall of Fame with Booker T & Brad Gilmore podcast, WWE Hall of Famer and co-host gave his thoughts about WWE’s new WWE ID program and its impact on independent wrestling. Booker T stated “A lot of these independent guys right now, they got a booking on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in three different places, and they’re just going all over the place. Nobody is seeing them, there’s no cameras rolling, there’s not a guy in the back, a veteran, an OG, that can tell them, ‘Hey man, you might need to work on this.’ Because a lot of those promoters just don’t know because they have never been there. No disrespect or anything like that. But I think having a program like this, being able to be mentored, guided on a full-time basis…I would think it would be only beneficial to somebody that’s seriously thinking about working at that next level. Now, if they just want to do independent wrestling, they just want to do backyard wrestling, they just want to play wrestler, there’s a lot of places to do that. But a program like this ID program, it’s gonna be for the elite guys and girls out there that want to partake on this journey.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)