Rumor Roundup (May 18, 2023): CM Punk & Ace Steel, AEW roster split, Fight Forever release, NXT PLE, more!

Speculating on the rumors surrounding pro wrestling is a favored pastime of many fans, perhaps second only to actually watching the matches. In this daily column, we take a look at the latest rumors being churned out by the pro wrestling rumor mill.

Important reminder: Rumors are just that — rumors. None of this has been confirmed as fact, it’s just circulating around the pro wrestling rumor mill. We track rumor accuracy in a weekly feature called Rumor Look Back you can find here. Remember, take it all with a grain of salt.

Rumors for the Day:

• Another Fightful Select report on CM Punk & AEW said Punk was told this week that AEW would re-hire Ace Steel to work directly with him, but Steel would not be allowed at television tapings. Sean Ross Sapp wrote that he hadn’t heard how Punk reacted, “outside of him not being in agreement with it.”
• Sapp didn’t hear that this was why Punk wasn’t part of the Collision announcement, but did hear about plans for AEW camera crew to film at CM Punk’s home on Wednesday. He couldn’t confirm whether or not that filming happened.
• An earlier Fightful report on Collision said AEW’s current plans were to implement “a firm brand split, with some rare exceptions.” The exceptions would mostly be for titleholders. Sapp tweeted that talent were told today they’ll be told soon what brand they’re on.
• Contradicting that was a PW Insider Elite story claiming their sources told them AEW’s was “not a hard Raw vs. Smackdown split and was never ever discussed as one internally”, with wrestlers appearances on Dynamite or Collision “dictated by storylines”.
• Insider also said that there were never plans for Warner Bros Discovery to announce a new or extended media rights contract with AEW yesterday.
• In their story on a listing of AEW: Fight Forever achievements briefly showing up in the Xbox Store earlier this week, Insider Gaming said they’ve heard but couldn’t confirm “an end-of-June release date” for the long awaited console game.
• WWE plans to hold an NXT PLE on Sat., Aug. 12, per PW Insider.

If you have heard of any interesting rumors that you’d like to add, feel free to post them in the comments section below. Just remember they are rumors and not confirmed as fact, so please take them as such. And check our weekly Rumor Look Back here to keep track of how often rumors turn out to be correct.