Public opinion will swing back his way a little if photos of his injury emerge in the coming days.
Next, people will slowly start to wonder if it's a work.
We know Punk's passion for storytelling is back. We know he loves MJF, and that he's invested 9 months into crafting a beautiful story for MJF to emerge as the "new" CM Punk. We know Punk has spent a year saying "I'm so disappointed in you" to most of the next generation of talent rising up, while only praising the WWE guys. We know Moxley called Punk "fragile body, fragile mind" days before the PPV.
Finally, we know that this has created enormous buzz for AEW and shifted all the talk back to AEW after WWE had stolen the spotlight for the first time in 3 years.
Let's f'ing go!