Dave Meltzer noted in today's F4WOnline.com daily update that "We're told that some of the Punk storyline will not occur directly on WWE television." Ladies and gentleman, start your fantasy booking engines.
Obviously the scenario that's gotten to most discussion is Ring of Honor being involved in some form. Between CM Punk's fellow former ROH Champion Daniel Bryan winning the Smackdown Money In The Bank match, the rumors that Colt Cabana and the "Kings of Wrestling" team of Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli will be leaving ROH for WWE, and former ROH Champion Tyler Black kicking around FCW as Seth Rollins, a group of Punk allies with history in ROH is feasible based on numbers at least. Obviously, Punk making an appearance in ROH would be something else, especially with their first Sinclair TV taping being in Chicago on August 13th.
If Punk appears at all in ROH, I don't see it being anything more than a surprise appearance for Punk to appear with the belt (in a match more realistically just a promo) in front of an incredibly hot crowd in his home promotion so the clip can be aired on Raw. Punk's mention of ROH in the promo that kicked off this program would probably be a sign that WWE is no longer hostile to them over the "wrestling is back on Monday nights" campaign that hyped their HDNet show. If they go in this direction, it doesn't have to be ROH to work, but it helps that they would have larger crowds and better production than most indies.
At the very least, Punk's appearances in the media should be a part of this. The big question is how much further they go and if going further includes WWE title defenses outside of WWE.