Last night on WWE Backstage, CM Punk made his shocking return to Vince McMahon’s company. It was later revealed that Punk will be making occasional appearances on the FS1 show.
After five years away from the company, CM Punk’s return will be great news for WWE. Although he is contracted to FOX instead of WWE, Punk will now not be able to join AEW in the future.
However, Bryan Alvarez is reporting on the latest Wrestling Observer Live that Punk actually met with AEW boss Tony Khan. Khan offered the former WWE Champion a big-money deal to join All Elite Wrestling:
“What I can tell you about negotiations with Punk is that Punk did, in fact negotiate with AEW. I know that Punk’s story — I don’t even know what his story is now. I know the story that he gave was that they sent me some texts and it was this, it was that. CM Punk met in person with Tony Khan about AEW and they offered him lots of money and he ended up doing this WWE on Fox gig.”
Alvarez then speculated that Punk might have turned down AEW in favour of signing with FOX and WWE Backstage because he has no interest in stepping back into a wrestling ring:
“Now, what does that mean? I don’t know. It could mean that CM Punk doesn’t have any interest in actually wrestling. It could be that CM Punk wants to continue doing what he’s doing in his life and he’s over the in-ring aspect of it. He was given a great deal to not even work every week. They made it abundantly clear that he is not a host of this show. He is a special contributor. He will be making appearances on a regular basis. He’s not even going to be there every week. It could be that Fox has got a lot of money. It could be that Fox offered him a ungodly amount of money to occasionally show up as a contributor for a show on FS1 and he took the money and that’s what he’s doing. It could be that CM Punk does, in fact, want to wrestle and he knows with WWE’s new television deals that they’re going to offer him a ridiculous amount of money to wrestle.”
While CM Punk might not be wrestling in the near future, the door is not closed on him stepping back inside the octagon for a third UFC fight.
