Influential WWE Name Reportedly Would Vote ‘No’ To CM Punk Return

WWE

An influential WWE name reportedly would vote “no” to a CM Punk return to the company.

As previously reported, AEW and CM Punk are in talks over a contract buyout for the former AEW World Champion to leave the promotion.

The only hold-up on the buyout is a non compete clause that would prevent Punk from jumping to WWE if they want him back or if he wants to go back.

During a recent PWTorch audio show, Wade Keller discussed some of the issues between CM Punk and All Elite Wrestling.

On the possibility of Punk returning to WWE, Keller said:

“As I talked about this fall, Paul Levesque is more likely to bring Punk back than Vince McMahon would have been, not less. That doesn’t mean Paul Levesque was a fan of CM Punk. But Paul Levesque is in a different position than Vince McMahon. Vince McMahon never believed in CM Punk. And therefore, in the way he pushed Punk never really fully got behind him. Paul Levesque, while he thinks Punk personality wise might be more trouble than he’s worth, has shown a history of recognizing wrestlers who are over with today’s fans that he himself might not have predicted would be over…”

Keller continued on to bring up an influential name in the company would be a hard “no” for Punk coming back, saying:

“Somebody who’s currently in WWE, and is within the sphere of influence of Paul Levesque’s decision making would be a hard ‘No’ as of me asking this person today. A hard ‘No’ on endorsing the return of CM Punk, even if it would help business. I won’t go into exactly what was said. But when I asked, I got a long paragraph of one sentence after another of negative comments about how they feel about Punk now, compared to 8, 9, 10 years ago, based on what’s happened in AEW, in the last 13 months. And by the way, related to this, I talked to three people of significant stature in AEW in the last couple of days…I asked how would a vote go in the AEW locker room if they were asked if they wanted Punk to return? One person said he wouldn’t fare very well. Another person said he thinks he might not get a single vote. And someone else says he doesn’t think he’d get many votes…I think he’d get some personally just based on conversations I’ve had the last six weeks with others. The three people I just talked to in the last few days are higher, prominent people of influence in that locker room. So that tells you something about his standing and why I think if Punk were to return it wouldn’t necessarily go well for him in either place. And I think that’s going to that falls into the calculation of Tony Khan right now. And it might fall into the calculation of Paul Levesque. I still believe Levesque would be more likely to bring him in than Vince McMahon for the reasons I said, but I think there would be some pushback by people in Levesque’s sphere of influence.”

As previously reported, Wade Keller also provided a backstage update on MJF’s reputation in AEW during the same edition.

Stay up to date with the AEW roster’s win-loss record (for televised matches) at this link.

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