Recent reports claim that former WWE and World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk will be returning to the franshise, but have not been officially confirmed.

The rumors of Punk returning with the company resurfaced when his new wife AJ Lee returned to the WWE last week on Raw and defeated the current champion, Paige, in a rematch, to become the new WWE Divas Champion. Punk's wife previously lost in an upset defeat to Paige when the UK diva made her WWE debut on the night after Wrestlemania 30 on April 7.

Unfortunately, it seems AJ's return to WWE is not correlated with CM Punk's come back, as the 35-year-old Chicago native's contract is rumored to expire on July 17, according to a Pwinsider report.

"I'm not going there" said an unidentified source to Pwinsider report when asked about CM Punk's status with the company.

Punk has not appeared in the WWE ring since he competed at the Royal Rumble PPV event on January 26, but that fact has not stopped the widespread rumors that the "Straight Edge" superstar will return to the WWE.

CM Punk recently had the lengthiest WWE title reign in the past 25 years after he defeated Alberto Del Rio for the most esteemed prize in professional wrestling history at the Survivor Series PPV event on November 20, 2011. Conversely, Punk's impressive and lengthy title reign (434 consecutive days) came to an end on January 27, 2013 when The Rock beat him at the Elimination Chamber's main event title match.

When Punk was asked the following question, "How does it feel to be retired at 35? Are you going to be doing more charity work now?" in an interview two months ago, the former WWE superstar issued the following response:

"It feels good," said Punk to RedEye Chicago on May 29, "It's a lot easier when you hook up with organizations like the Cubs and being friends with some of the team members. It isn't hard to support their charities. Plus I get to do fun stuff like bowl and paint chairs and play whiffle ball with Bill Murray. It was super fun and for a great cause. You've got athletes and actresses and musicians and all kinds of people painting chairs. I'm super happy to be a part of it.

WWE Monday Night Raw airs every week at 8/7 CT on the USA Network.