It's now been confirmed that CM Punk suffered a knee injury a few weeks back and has been working hurt for a while now. There hasn't been any word on why he elected to have it looked at now but there are plenty of reasons why it would make sense for him to do so.
The Wrestling Observer is reporting that because of the injury, he's expected to miss the TLC pay-per-view (PPV) event scheduled for Dec. 16, 2012, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Punk was going to be defending his WWE championship against Ryback in a tables, ladders, and chairs match.
Seems awful risky for a guy who would be less than two weeks removed from knee surgery, even if it was minor. That seems to be the case, too, as WWE revealed the surgery was to trim a cartilage tear that had been locking up his knee. Mileage may vary, of course, but there have been athletes in other sports who have come back from similar injuries within two weeks.
Still, that puts his status for TLC in enough doubt that it would be prudent for the promotion to hold him out of the event altogether, or at the very least not risk his health in a dangerous match. The priority should still be to have Punk as healthy as possible for his planned Royal Rumble match against the returning Rock. Yes, that would leave Ryback out in the cold but they can certainly work around that.
What do you think, Cagesiders? If Punk can come back in time for TLC, should he? Or should WWE hold him out to let him heal up?