CM Punk: Latest News and Buzz Surrounding Former WWE Star for Week of Sept. 15

CM Punk doesn't appear to be content with just stepping away from WWE, with recent reports suggesting that he's looking to be wiped away from the company completely—his likeness and all.

Just when it seems as if Punk-related news will fade, his name pops up again. This time it came at the bottom of a letter his attorneys sent to his old employer.

WWE hasn't erased him from its history, but it has done away with Punk merchandise and may have to remove him from the upcoming WWE 2K15 video game.

Last year, Punk was readying himself to take on Paul Heyman and Curtis Axel at Night of Champions. This time around, his legal team is doing the fighting for him.

Royalties Dispute

Punk left the WWE, as TMZ and others reported, back in January. His name, likeness and archived body of work remained.

When word that Punk would be one of the featured stars of the next WWE game came out, it seemed ironic. 2K Sports couldn't have known that one of the company's top guys would be persona non grata by the time the game came out.

That may have inspired Punk to strike back. 

According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (subscription required, h/t ProWrestling.net), Punk's lawyers sent WWE a 22-page letter. Royalties from the video game were of chief concern.

The process then advanced, and the letter led to meetings.

GameSpot reports, "Legal representatives for pro-wrestler CM Punk are engaged with WWE officials to settle a range of disputes, including his possible removal [from] the upcoming game."

If Punk hadn't already burned his proverbial bridges, he has now reduced them to ash. With each contentious interaction like this, a Punk return looks more and more like it will only exist in fantasy-booking scenarios.

As for WWE 2K15, Punk's rivalry with John Cena was shaping up to be a central part of the game. Yanking him out will be no easy task.

Only Partially Erased

Those meetings seemed to have at least triggered the removal of Punk merchandise.

After discounting much of it, WWE pulled all items featuring The Straight Edge Superstar from WWE Shop. As Wrestle Zone notes, if one tries to find his gear now, "all searches related to CM Punk yield no results."

This fan shared a screenshot of what happens if you go hunting for Punk gear:

That may have been part of what was discussed in the aforementioned meetings and one of the easier things to resolve. Reworking the video game will be much tougher.

Punk isn't getting the Chris Benoit treatment (never mentioned anywhere), though. WWE recently compiled a list of Cena's 10 greatest rivals. Punk came in at No. 6.

What's most interesting is that the company seems to acknowledge Punk's exit. Writing about Cena and Punk's feud, Anthony Benigno notes for WWE.com, "the greatest disappointment in Punk’s untimely departure is knowing they definitely had a few more in them."

It's unclear whether Benigno is referring to Punk's storyline departure in 2011 here, but it sounds more like this is about him leaving the company this year. Heyman and Stephanie McMahon have mentioned the departure in passing, but WWE had yet to refer to him leaving in print.

That's just the latest step in the snail-paced narrative that has been Punk's divorce from WWE. It may be years before we get the full story of what happened behind the scenes.

Busy Elsewhere

In the meantime, Punk is savoring being free from the grueling schedule that a wrestler endures.

When Riot Fest came to his hometown of Chicago, he wasn't on the road performing on Raw or prepping for Night of Champions. He had ample time to stop by the music festival.

The Riot Fest Twitter account posted a shot of him wearing what he has worn to the ring on many an occasion—a snarl and a Gracie hoodie:

Punk even got a chance to go up on stage and do a little singing. Matt Knicks posted an Instagram photo of him assisting Bouncing Souls on vocals:

That's not exactly the type of mic work his fans want to see him doing, but that's his new life.

It appears that we won't be seeing Punk in a WWE ring for a long, long time and maybe not ever. We may not even see him in the WWE video game.