Rumor Roundup: CM Punk backstage drama, WWE secret signing, Woods’ injury, 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:

• Following up on yesterday’s rumor about CM Punk’s backstage confrontation with Miro, Fightful Select heard that Punk and Miro were just joking around; it was misinterpreted by the wrestlers who heard the story.
• Even so, F4WOnline’s Bryan Alvarez maintains the story is true and there was a “serious issue” between Punk and Miro.
• Fightful also heard that Punk vs. Ricky Starks for the “Real World Championship” was at one point the likely main event for this Sunday’s All Out pay-per-view in Chicago, but the status of the match is now uncertain given Punk’s reported suspension following his backstage altercation with Jack Perry at All In.
• PW Insider claims “the belief among those in AEW” is that Punk was fined for taking shots at Hangman Page after the Aug. 12 episode of Collision went off the air, and the fine “may have even been in the five figure range.”
• PW Torch notes that Punk wasn’t the only wrestler underwhelmed with the AEW’s travel accommodations in London for All In. Multiple wrestlers were not picked up at the airport, which is something that WWE and NJPW handle well when it comes to international tours.
• Alvarez said there are “a lot of rumors about COVID and AEW.” This might be related to Tony Khan’s announcement before last night’s Dynamite went on the air about late changes to the card.
• Alvarez also indicated that Xavier Woods is dealing with a legitimate injury following the injury angle on Raw where Drew McIntyre threw a chair at him: “I don’t know if it was the chair spot, but I believe that Woods was hurt. So hopefully he’ll be back soon. But something happened, and he suffered some sort of injury.”
• Fightful was told that WWE secretly signed Authors of Pain in 2022, before Vince McMahon returned to power. PW Insider added that there have been discussions about AOP appearing on NXT next month.

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.