WrestleVotes on Fightful Select has received word from sources that CM Punk’s surprise WWE Title reign will dominate proceedings over on SmackDown for the foreseeable future. In fact, it’s understood there are no plans to make his championship run “short term”.
We could be in for a long one, folks. Sami Zayn fans will feel extra-aggrieved at that!
Seriously though, this would’ve been expected by most following events on Monday’s episode of Raw. There, Punk replaced Cody Rhodes in a title bout vs. then-champ Zayn, and the returning Punker seized the win to kickstart his first WWE Title reign since 2013.
WrestleVotes/Fightful report that execs over at NBCUniversal have been campaigning “for more Punk on SmackDown for well over a year”, because “they view him as one of WWE’s premier stars”. Further, the belief is that CM could rescue SmackDown, which has been a largely ailing show critically for a while now.
The blue brand does have good moments, but it generally needs better direction and arguably a move away from Cody as the linchpin babyface. Going with Punk as champion and casting him as SmackDown’s marquee star should shake things up a little for the rest of 2026.
For the record, Punk hasn’t actually wrestled a match on SmackDown since returning to the company back at the tail end of 2023. In total, he’s wrestled approx 60 matches since coming back, but they’ve all been on Raw, Saturday Night’s Main Event, major PLEs or house shows.
You’d need to go all the way back to the 10 January 2014 edition of Smackers to find CM’s last televised match on the weekly. He teamed with the New Age Outlaws vs. The Shield on that occasion.
In 2026, SmackDown is about to become CM Punk’s show.
