WWE: Piper Niven Provides Update on Neck Injury Recovery & Hoping For In-Ring Return, CM Punk on Him Hoping To Work More Tag Matches With His Wife AJ Lee in WWE, Backstage Update on Ava’s WWE Departure

Feb 3, 2026

Piper Niven Provides Update on Neck Injury Recovery & Hoping For In-Ring Return

As noted before, Piper Niven has been out of action for WWE since this past August due to a undisclosed injury that is believed to be a neck injury.

In response to a recent fan on Twitter, Niven provided an update on her recovery from a neck injury and her being hopeful of making an in-ring return in the future.

“I am in a good spot rn! ☺️
I’m sorry I’ve been so quiet with you guys.
I appreciate every single message and every tweet (x? Sk?) I get, even if I haven’t liked or responded.
The truth is I’ve been so quiet as I know you have questions but the fact of the matter is, I don’t know yet.
It’s 5 months on and some days when it’s bad I can’t stand up for more than a few minutes if even a minute.
Do I want to come back? Of course I do. This is all I’ve done and all I’ve wanted to do since I was 16 years old and I can’t imagine doing anything else, I still love it as much as I did the first day I started. And I feel like I was really just starting to get confident again and open up and hit my groove 😆
So all this to say, I hope so. Keep your fingers crossed for me 🤞🏻😘”

I am in a good spot rn! ☺️

I’m sorry I’ve been so quiet with you guys.

I appreciate every single message and every tweet (x? Sk?) I get, even if I haven’t liked or responded.

The truth is I’ve been so quiet as I know you have questions but the fact of the matter is, I don’t… https://t.co/r1DcV0ESrL
— Slaygent P (@PiperNivenWWE) February 3, 2026

CM Punk Comments on Him Hoping To Work More Tag Matches With His Wife AJ Lee in WWE

Complex News held a recent interview with WWE World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk. One of the topics discussed included Punk’s thoughts about him getting to team up with his wife AJ Lee at this past September’s Wrestlepalooza event and him currently being hopeful of having more tag matches with Lee in the future.

“I don’t have the words to explain exactly how enjoyable all that was for me, I’m her biggest fan, so to have a front row seat literally for her return, and to help kind of put it all together behind the scenes, and the anticipation knowing it was going to happen.. just knowing how great it was going to be, and what an amazing moment it was going to be.. Time of my life. 100%. I selfishly want to tag with her more. It feels like that might have been a one off, but I don’t know. We’ll have to see.”

In a separate recent interview with GQ Sports, Punk gave his thoughts about how he never pushed Lee towards a return to WWE.

“I tried to be a fly on the wall. I would answer questions when asked and I never pushed her towards it. I would just tell her of my experiences and my point of view and I let her make her own decisions. Because a little secret about my wife: Can’t make her do anything she doesn’t want to do. She’s a lot like me in that respect. I just was there to answer questions and help guide her if she wanted that, and luckily, it all worked out.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

Backstage Update on Ava’s WWE Departure

As noted before, former NXT General Manager Ava, real name Simone Garcia Johnson, departed from WWE this past Friday following her not renewing her contract with the company.

Bodyslam+ reported that their sources stated that WWE officials had offered Ava a new deal that included a pay raise in an attempt to keep her in the company but she turned down the offer.

Following her departure, Ava made comments on Twitter that were anti-ICE and President Trump that later led to her Twitter account being removed. The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer reported that his sources stated that it was Johnson’s decision to take down her Twitter account after her negative post about ICE and the current administration. Meltzer reported that this was something that was not forced on her. Meltzer speculated that one reason may have been due to her posting it under her WWE name which she would in theory no longer be able to use since she left the company.