The was a report from PWInsider in the past week that CM Punk had been in talks with FOX over a potential role on its new “WWE Backstage” show on FS1.
Punk appeared on Collider Live to promote his new horror movie, Girl on the Third Floor, but the conversation didn’t focus on the film for long.
He was asked about the report, and he was quick to confirm that he did indeed meet with FOX.
“Yeah I did it. I’m very much in a position where, ‘Well come talk to me. I’m open to anything,”
Spotting how this may have sounded to hopeful wrestling fans, he added:
“If they come to me with, ‘Hey we want you to wrestle,’ I’ll say, ‘um, I’m not interested’.”
Of course, if he was returning, this is exactly what he would say, but let’s not get into that.
He was very firm about his stance on a potential return to the ring, which if this interview is anything to go by, isn’t going to happen.
“I’ve grown so much as a person and I look back at all the stuff and I don’t need it. I don’t need the confrontation and I don’t need the drama. But I’m a businessman. I also put my morals and my integrity above business deals.
“If you want me to do anything, well OK, come talk to me but don’t waste my time.”
He spoke about WWE’s slipping ratings, and noted how much higher they were during his time with the company.
“Ratings are still dipping and that’s been happening for 20+ years,” Punk noted. “Trust me, I’m not saying that it’s because I’m not there or anything like that. When I was there and I was on top, RAW was doing 3.8’s and I was getting blamed for it, like that’s a bad rating. Now they would f–king kill to have a 3.8!
He was very keen to stress that while he may have spoken to FOX, FOX and WWE are different things and that speaking to one is not speaking to both.
“My agents just called me and FOX is throwing everything at this because they spent a lot of money on this and they’re all in to make it work. Originally I thought it was a WWE thing, so I was just like, ‘meh, no.’ But then they said, ‘this is FOX.’
“I’m not dealing with anybody in WWE. They explained to me what it was and I love Renee Young. Renee Young is a great person… she’s Canadian, so obviously she’s super over-the-top nice and friendly. I prefaced it with, ‘Guys, I’m not going to come in and dump all over stuff just to dump on it. That’s old Phil. But if it’s bad, I’m not going to be able to pretend it’s anything but bad.’
“So they want to present it like it’s a real sport and just have a show that recaps stuff, just like they do with the NFL, just like the NHL Network would do with hockey games and stuff like that. That’s where we are with that.”
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