WWE may have subtly confirmed 8-time champion will challenge Gunther for the World Heavyweight Title next

Gunther dethroned Damian Priest at SummerSlam 2024 and has been the World Heavyweight Champion since. He has had multiple challengers, but all of them have fallen in front of The Ring General. In fact, he recently managed to retain the championship during a Triple Threat match against The Archer of Infamy and Finn Balor.

Interestingly, the Stamford-based promotion seems to have already selected The Ring General's next challenger, CM Punk.

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WWE is booking CM Punk vs Ludwig Kaiser for live shows

The wrestling juggernaut usually uses live shows as a means of testing different feuds with the audience before bringing it to WWE TV. Kaiser's social media account announced the live show match for the Holiday tour.

If the WWE audience reacts positively to the match, the feud can be moved to WWE TV. A match against Ludwig Kaiser can be the build-up match for the Second City Saint to challenge Gunther for the World Heavyweight Championship.

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The Voice of the Voiceless has already shown interest in the championship

When CM Punk returned to WWE, one of the superstars who reacted negatively to it was Seth Rollins. The Visionary claimed that Punk wasn't around for the last decade when the rest of them carried the company on their backs, and WWE doesn't need him.

However, the promotion did not build a feud between them then and had Punk work a rivalry with Drew McIntyre. In the meantime, Rollins was dethroned as the World Heavyweight Champion as well.

Recently, both Rollins and Punk again came face-to-face. CM Punk clarified that when he was interested in The Visionary, Rollins had the World Heavyweight Championship. However, now that he isn't the champion anymore, the Second City Saint has no interest in him.

This proves that CM Punk has his eyes on the World Heavyweight Championship, and will soon pursue it.

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Challenging Gunther is the logical next step in CM Punk's progression

After his feud with Drew McIntyre, Punk cemented himself as a fan favorite. Following that rivalry, he took some time off before returning with Paul Heyman to help The OG Bloodline at Survivor Series WarGames.

Now that he has completed the quests that helped him solidify his popularity with fans, it only makes sense to book him in a championship feud against Gunther for WWE RAW, especially since the red show will move to Netflix in January 2025.