CM Punk's potential WWE return creates speculation about unresolved issues

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Look, there’s no denying that CM Punk being away from WWE for several months without a storyline or official explanation is odd — especially at a time when fans are criticizing Raw, SmackDown, and the company’s product in general for being uninspired. But it’s also not necessarily scandalous or anything. Time off has become more the norm for stars of Punk’s caliber and age. And “plans change” and “awaiting creative” get mocked as dirt sheet crutches all the time, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t times when they are the explanation for something. Given injuries and other more detailed backstage reports, it seems reasonable to believe Punk’s post-Raw After WrestleMania 42 is one of those times, and that all is well between WWE and the Straight-Edge Chicagoan. Whispers that something more significant is going on between Punk and WWE continue, however. This note from Dave Meltzer in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter — which if I’m parsing the Meltzer-ese correctly, I believe is meant to generally corroborate reports that things are fine between the two sides and indicate the issue could just be that Punk wants to return two Mondays from now (July 6) when Raw is in his hometown but WWE is moving him to SmackDown for his next feud. It leaves a lot of room open for alternate reads however, like the click-enticing one I went with for the headline. Here’s Dave: Even though Punk is earmarked for SmackDown, he was pushing very hard for his return to be on the 7/6 Raw show because it’s in Chicago. His departure was basically to get him ready for moving to SmackDown and eventually a program with [Undisputed WWE champ Cody] Rhodes, but to say there are no issues at all, that wouldn’t be correct. It’s not as bad as some have made it out to be, but it’s not like there aren’t any issues at all. If saying there are no issues at all wouldn’t be correct, then there are issues. And “some” have made those issues out to be “bad”, although I’m taking that last sentence to mean that Meltzer doesn’t agree with those that do. Wrestling reporting usually finds a way to cover itself, however. And Dave’s careful to not make many clearly definitive statements about anything other than what he previously reported: “Punk to SmackDown for the Cody Rhodes program teased on the Raw After ’Mania”. Wrestling bloggers, especially those of us who double as fans? We usually find a way to overthink wrestling reporting. We hope you’ve enjoyed both phenomena, as we’d love to have you take part in a conversation about this here wrestling blog post in the comments below.