Chris Jericho Clarifies AEW World Championship Has Not Been Relinquished

By Sai Mohan

Following CM Punk's injury announcement on Friday's "Rampage," there was a lot of confusion among fans as to the future of the AEW World Championship. While Punk didn't directly say he was relinquishing the title, he said he wanted to relinquish it but AEW President Tony Khan wouldn't let him.

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"I told Tony I would relinquish this title, but Tony told me that he believes in CM Punk," Punk said in his emotional speech at the Toyota Center in Ontario, California. "And he believes this is just a bump in the road, and I tell you god damn it, I needed to hear that."

Punk's ambiguous comments led to some confusion, which was further amplified by Chris Jericho stating on commentary that Punk was going to "relinquish" the title after holding it for less than a week. Later on Twitter, Jericho clarified that he misspoke.

As reported earlier, an interim AEW World Champion will be crowned at the AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door pay-per-view on June 26. The new interim champion will then wrestle CM Punk at a later date in a title unification match whenever Punk returns from injury.

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This coming Wednesday's "Dynamite" will kick off with a battle royal and the winner will wrestle Jon Moxley in the main event to crown a new No. 1 contender. The winner will then presumably wrestle Hiroshi Tanahashi to crown an interim AEW World Champion at Forbidden Door, though that hasn't been officially announced.

Punk was originally scheduled to defend his title against Tanahashi at Forbidden Door.

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