The wrestling world all but imploded this past weekend. In a move that nobody thought was possible after the man’s years of controversial history with the company, CM Punk returned to theWWEat the end of Survivor Series. Having been previously outspoken on how WWE treated him in the years since his sudden exit, short MMA run, and polarizing tenure in AEW, Punk has returned to the house of Vince McMahon to wreak all kinds of havoc.
It’s a short-sighted move designed to make money and win over fans without considering the personal and professional feelings of countless other superstars on the roster. Those wrestlers are trying their best to make a name for themselves, only to have that taken away by a hypocrite with a history of screwing people over and acting like a diva in the locker room. But when he walked in after the main event I may have rolled my eyes, yet I still felt my jaw hit the floor, because no matter how much I want to deny it, there is something about CM Punk that draws you in.
CM Punk was dismissed from rival promotion AEW earlier this yearafter allegedly causing fights and punching multiple fights. There was no choice but to let him go.
We can’t stop talking about him, and haven’t been able to stop ever since his infamous Pipe Bomb promo in 2011, in which Punk sat down on the ramp entranceway and spoke with the crowd about how WWE treated him unfairly, gave better opportunities to part-timers who did the bare minimum and kept on making him and many others jump through hoops for nothing. It broke down the walls of professional wrestling, breaking kayfabe - otherwise known as the characters and storytelling in wrestling that are scripted and considered real - to provide us with a peek behind the curtain. An inside look at the very real and very justified frustrations superstars and fans felt in equal measure. It turned CM Punk into an icon, blurring the lines of reality in a way that only grew more influential when he won the title and fled the company soon after.
The confusion over which parts of this were scripted and which bled into real life made it impossible to ignore. In the years we had watched the sweaty soap opera, never before had things been questioned so beautifully, with both parties leaning into it to make the most money and have the biggest impact. It still ended in bad blood, that much was clear, but to see the charade continue on a decade later with such a bombastic return has me both excited and terrified about the future.
Punk’s return caught everyone by surprise, with reports shortly after the match questioning whether talent in the ring even knew it was going to happen, or if reactions from people like Seth Rollins were genuine or hammed up in order to add heat to future programmes. Punk’s impossible to predict, and who knows if he will turn up and put hard work in each and every week or will become one of the part-timers he used to despise as he only turns up for the big paychecks. How ironic would it be to see a pioneer of counterculture like CM Punk become a draw on the same level as Brock Lesnar or Roman Reigns, to become one of the people he publicly ridiculed. Only time will tell, and the last thing I want is for this to blow up in everyone’s faces.
Ever since he left, crowds have been chanting “CM Punk!” as a natural protest against poor matches, bad creative decisions, or just to rile up certain people and events. Fans demanded for the man to return despite them failing to understand exactly what a reunion might entail. It’s here now, and we’ll spend the next weeks and months dealing with the consequences, even if they end up being dream matches we never thought possible or high profile names leaving the company because they don’t want to work with the man. There’s no way to know, but I’d be lying if this drama wasn’t the most interesting thing to happen in WWE for years - maybe since Punk left.
I feel for other names like Cody Rhodes though, who left the good graces of AEW for a huge WWE return where he was initially promised title shots and main event spots, only for those things to fade away as he promptly became the company’s number two man. Now that CM Punk is back, any hope of forward momentum that doesn’t end with him in the spotlight may be a lost cause. Punk’s return also makes the rival promotion look like a hive of bad creative decisions and continuous mismanagement when one of its founders and the strongest name it ever signed both returned to the questionable graces of their previous employer.
It’s worth noting why exactly Punk was ousted from AEW too, with behaviour ranging from him both punching staff and causing multiple fights backstage, and being hard to work with because he expected too much and gave too little. WWE bringing him back without acknowledging past actions sets a bad precedent,but when you forgive someone like Hulk Hogan, CM Punk was probably always going to be embraced no matter what he ended up doing. Will this bleed into the WWE locker room, and will everyone who needs to work with the man forgive past transgressions or merely end up surfacing new ones? It doesn’t look good.
Monday Night Raw this week saw Punk give a relatively unremarkable promo that promised he had changed as a person and constantly wished to return to fans who never stopped supporting him, mentioning how the aforementioned chants have travelled around the world only to land right back at his feet. He also mentions the support he’s been shown backstage with the exception of a few unruly outsiders. No names were dropped, but fans have enough intelligence to read between the lines and figure out exactly where this is all leading. I’ll believe he’s turned over a new leaf when I see it, and hope this pipedream of a return doesn’t come back to bite us in the butt. If it does, you can’t say I didn’t warn you.
