Rumor Roundup (May 24, 2023): CM Punk return, early WrestleMania 40 plans, Raw, 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:

• According to Fightful Select, the documents AEW sent to CM Punk were for contractual purposes to cover an issues that may arise upon their working relationship moving forward. It would appear, then, that his return is still moving ahead at this time.
• WRKD Wrestling claims “discussions have taken place” already for the Raw main event at WrestleMania 40 to be Cody Rhodes vs. GUNTHER.
• For what it’s worth, Fightful Select notes the Triple H/Cody Rhodes segment on Raw this week “was being relayed as someone big putting over Cody” before the show.
• They also say that there were plenty of changes made to the Monday Night Raw script this week, and “one talent speculated it was due to Vince McMahon.”
• On Wrestling Observer Live, Bryan Alvarez mentioned that WWE has kicked around the idea of making SmackDown a three hour show “for years.”

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.