CM Punk Compares John Cena to Gretzky, Alexa Bliss Rips Trolls, AEW Rumors on Anna Jay

Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from the WWE Universe and All Elite Wrestling.

Punk Makes GOAT Comparison Regarding Cena

CM Punk paid the ultimate compliment to John Cena this week amid Cena's retirement tour quickly nearing its conclusion.

During an appearance on WGN News in Chicago (h/t WrestlingInc.com's Nishant Jayaram), Punk compared being around Cena in his final weeks as an in-ring competitor to playing alongside NHL legend Wayne Gretzky near the end of his career:

"[It's] a real treat to come back to WWE to be a witness to John, you know, gracefully bowing out and retiring," Punk said. "I'm a small part of his story, and I'm proud to be that small part, and it's been everything to me. I'm a fan of his, just like people are fans of me, so being around him and being there to experience him, like just kind of gracefully, I feel like I'm skating with Gretzky during his last couple of games."

Gretzky has long been regarded as the greatest hockey player of all time, as his 2,857 career points are nearly 1,000 more than Jaromír Jágr, who is second on the NHL's all-time list.

Determining the greatest wrestler of all time isn't so cut and dry, but Cena does hold the all-time record with 17 world title reigns.

He also spent well over a decade as the face of WWE, and there are few others in the history of the company who can claim to have been as popular and successful as Cena.

It can be argued that Punk is Cena's greatest opponent and rival, as they faced off in no shortage of classic matches over the years.

Punk is also an all-time great in his own right, and he is among those who will be tasked with taking the torch and carrying it once Cena officially retires from wrestling at the end of the year.

Cena will make his final premium live event appearance later this month when he puts the Intercontinental Championship on the line against Dominik Mysterio at Survivor Series, and his last match will take place at the Dec. 13 Saturday Night's Main Event against the winner of the Last Time Is Now tournament.

Bliss Responds to X Troll

Alexa Bliss offered a response Thursday to recent talk about her appearance on social media.

In a post on X, Bliss wrote that she has "seen the tweets," and noted that her travel schedule and commitment to motherhood "will definitely take a toll on my appearance."

Per Subhojeet Mukherjee of Ringside News, Bliss' post was seemingly in response to a fan, who asked, "Why does [Bliss] kinda look older than she used to," in reference to Bliss.

The post included an up-close shot of Bliss' face during the promo she cut on Raw regarding her friendship with Charlotte Flair.

Bliss, 34, initially signed with WWE back in 2013, and upon getting called up to the main roster in 2016, she began establishing herself as one of the most successful women's wrestlers of her era.

She is a highly decorated champion in WWE, having held the WWE Women's Championship five times and the WWE Women's Tag Team Championships on four occasions. She is also a one-time Money in the Bank winner.

After a two-year absence that saw her start a family, Bliss made her WWE return earlier this year as a surprise entrant in the women's Royal Rumble match.

She and Flair formed a team and became women's tag team champs before recently dropping them to The Kabuki Warriors.

Now, Bliss is set to compete in a WarGames match at Survivor Series later this month, proving she is still at the top of her game over a decade into her career.

Anna Jay's AEW Contract Reportedly Expiring Soon

Longtime AEW star Anna Jay reportedly could be poised to become a free agent in the near future.

According to Fightful Select (h/t WrestlingInc.com's Ella Jay), Anna's AEW contract is set to expire "in the coming months," although AEW is expected to make an effort to re-sign her.

Fightful added that while Jay enjoys teaming with Tay Melo in AEW, she is also open to other options with companies outside of AEW.

Jay, 27, first began appearing in AEW in 2020. She spent time in Dark Order and the Jericho Appreciation Society, but she is probably best known for forming the tag team TayJay with Melo.

Given their status as a long-running tag team in AEW, TayJay were included in the field for the tournament to determine the inaugural AEW women's world tag team champions.

However, TayJay fell to Megan Bayne and Marina Shafir in their first-round matchup on this week's episode of Collision.

With TayJay out of the tournament and Jay's contract reportedly nearing expiration, the future of the team and Jay individually are very much in question currently.