WWE Rumors on CM Punk's Title Win, Cody Rhodes, Sami Zayn's Backstage Perception and Sheamus in AEW

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

Rumors on CM Punk Title Win, SummerSlam Bout vs. Cody Rhodes

Three months after his last appearance on WWE television, CM Punk returned to the ring on Monday night as a replacement for Cody Rhodes and defeated Sami Zayn to capture the undisputed WWE championship.

Per Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select (h/t Felix Upton of Ringside News), WWE had known "for a while" that Punk was returning on the July 6 episode of Raw from Chicago and "the plan" since it was set was for him to beat Zayn for the title.

"Well, this was the plan all throughout that. Like they knew that they were leading to this," Sapp wrote. "They always knew that Sami Zayn was going to drop this title to CM Punk because they have known when CM Punk was going to come back for a while."

Per PW Insider (h/t WrestlePurists), a Punk-Rhodes title match at SummerSlam has "been locked in for some time."

Rhodes won a No. 1 contender match against Jey Uso on SmackDown last week to challenge for the title, but Gunther beat him up backstage at the start of Raw.

Nick Aldis later revealed he called in a replacement for Rhodes, which turned out to be Punk to no one's surprise. The result does set up a storyline for Rhodes and Punk to feud over the title that was initially teased on the Raw after WrestleMania before Punk too his hiatus.

Per Mike Johnson of PW Insider, in reference to rumored tensions between Punk and WWE, there "were none" and his post-WrestleMania break was planned to let him "recharge" after a busy start to the year.

Even though SummerSlam would makes sense for Punk and Rhodes to headline one of the two nights, there is some work to do to get there since Rhodes' program right now would seem more focused on Gunther based on what happened at the start of Raw.

There remains nearly four weeks until SummerSlam, so there remains time to get to Punk vs. Rhodes.

Punk's win also seems to confirm the ongoing speculation that he is moving to SmackDown since the undisputed title is unique to the blue brand, while Roman Reigns and the world title are on Raw.

WWE's Rumored Perception of Sami Zayn

If it wasn't apparent based on him only getting a nine-day title reign, Sami Zayn is not regarded as a top-level star by WWE officials.

Per Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Obsever Radio (starts at 4:25 mark), WWE doesn't consider Zayn to be a "money player" on the roster.

Looking back to Zayn winning the title at Night of Champions, it appears as if the idea was for Punk to become the undisputed champion without beating Rhodes in order to having the American Nightmare chase for the title.

It does feel like a self-fulfilling prophecy by WWE toward Zayn because he was never given a chance to prove whether or not he could elevate to the level of Punk or Rhodes as champion.

An obvious comparison would be Darby Allin's title win over MJF in April. Even though he turned out to only be a short-term champion, he held the crown for more than one month and the build up for the rematch at Double or Nothing resulted in one of the biggest pay-per-view buyrates for the promotion.

Zayn has proven he can be a top-level star, particularly from his past work with the Bloodline in 2023, but WWE has never really gone all-in on him as someone who can carry one of the top two men's singles titles.

Updated Rumors on AEW's Interest in Sheamus

In the wake of Sheamus' departure from WWE, speculation immediately started about whether or not AEW would have interest in the former WWE champion.

Per Fightful Select (h/t WrestlePurists), there is "at least one" AEW talent expected to push to work with Sheamus in AEW and/or CMLL, as well as other promotions.

One of those people pushing to work with Sheamus could be Claudio Castagnoli, who were known as the Bar in a tag team when they both worked for WWE.

The Fightful Select report (h/t Nishant Jayaram of Yahoo.com) notes Castagnoli is "likely to recommend" signing Sheamus to AEW officials.

However, there could be some resistance within AEW to adding another talent to the roster.

Per Bryan Alvarez of Wrestling Observer Live (h/t Geno Mrosko of Cageside Seats), some within AEW feel like there is too much talent already under contract and not enough television time to feature them.

Another person who might be intrigued about working with Sheamus is MJF, who took to social media to post about the former WWE star after news of his departure came out.

It was reported on Sunday that Sheamus is leaving WWE when his contract expires after rejecting a restructured offer to stay.

Sheamus hasn't wrestled since November 2025 when he teamed with John Cena and Rey Mysterio against the Judgment Day. He was originally supposed to be in the Last Time is Now tournament to determine Cena's final opponent, but a shoulder injury forced him to be removed from the field.

If AEW does end up bringing in Sheamus, he could be added to the Death Riders with Castagnoli, Jon Moxley, Daniel Garcia, Wheeler Yuta and Marina Shafir.

Even though Sheamus at this point in his career is not likely to be a top-level star, his name recognition could make him a valuable addition to the AEW roster if Tony Khan wants to give him a shot when he officially becomes a free agent.