WWE slashes prices, sells out of CM Punk merchandise

Last week, the Rumor Roundup brought us the report that lawyers representing CM Punk had sent WWE a letter detailing his claim to royalties that the Best in the World's camp believes he is owed for sales of the company's products which use his name and likeness.

The Wrestling Observer story which fueled that report believed that WWE justified stopping Punk's royalty checks with their claim that he was in breach of contract when he left the company following January's Royal Rumble pay-per-view (PPV).

In a move that seems too well-timed to be mere coincidence, WWE Shop has discounted nearly all of the CM Punk merchandise still available under his alumni Superstar page.  Eddie Mac first caught wind of it, and shared it with us in a FanPost concerning the 88% price cut of his Best in the World documentary and match compilation DVD set.

As you can see below, those cuts went a lot further than just on the DVDs.  This is a snapshot of his merchandise page on shop.wwe.com as of this writing:

Only the action figure isn't marked down, and my guess is that their licensing deal with Mattel doesn't allow them to discount that.

From a non-legal, outsider perspective, this looks like a way to minimize any royalties generated on Punk merchandise in the event that the process started by that letter from his lawyers ends up resulting in WWE needing to cut their former contractor a check.

If nothing else, it certainly looks like they want out of the CM Punk business - as quickly as possible.