AEW to crown interim World Champion at Forbidden Door

Amidst a lot of confusion given how the message was delivered, AEW will crown a new interim World Champion at this month’s Forbidden Door pay-per-view.

Following current champion CM Punk’s promo Friday on Rampage where he said he was injured and required surgery, it was unclear whether he was relinquishing the title or not. He alluded to the fact Tony Khan said he shouldn’t while Chris Jericho said minutes later on commentary going into the commercial break that he was doing just that. Jericho then said it again during the next segment.

However, AEW lead announcer Excalibur attempted to clarify things in the break afterward, albeit while a TNT title match was happening in the ring:

• Punk is not relinquishing the title.
• There will be a battle royal to kick off Wednesday’s Dynamite. The number of men in the match wasn’t announced.
• The winner of that battle royal will face Jon Moxley in Wednesday’s main event. 
• The winner of that match will move onto to the interim World title match at the Forbidden Door PPV.
• At some point in the future, Punk will face the interim champion in a unification match.

However, it wasn’t clarified who that winner would be facing at the June 26th event. Given that Hiroshi Tanahashi was supposed to challenge Punk for the title, it’s assumed the winner will face him.

During the explanation, Excalibur said Moxley was the no. 1 contender even though the June 1st rankings have him at no. 3 while Wardlow is at no. 1.

Punk had just won the title on Sunday at Double or Nothing. It’s unknown when or how he got the undisclosed injury, but it’s believed to have been this past Wednesday, either on the dive he took into the stands or in his trios match that opened the show.