When news broke straight from WWE that CM Punk underwent emergency knee surgery today (Dec. 4, 2012), many fans were quick to question the legitimacy of the reports.

After all, we are talking about a website that routinely mixes kayfabe and reality.

Now, though, PWInsider.com is reporting that Punk is legitimately hurt and actually has been for weeks. According to their report, "The Straight Edge Superstar" has been working on a bum knee but toughing it out because he's the WWE champion and that is what's expected of him.

Plus there's that whole consecutive days as champion thing going on.

There is still no word on how severe the injury is, however, meaning we can't know what Punk's status will be for the TLC pay-per-view (PPV) where he's scheduled to defend the title in a TLC match against Ryback.

Keep it locked to this storystream for any further updates.