CM Punk Reveals AEW Offered Him a Deal, Explains Why He Agreed to Starrcast Appearance

CM Punk made headlines last week when Starrcast, the traveling wrestling fan convention, announced that he would appearing at the Starrcast III event outside of Chicago on the same day as AEW's next pay-per-view All Out. The announcement immediately fired up the speculation once again that Punk would make a return to the wrestling business more than five years after he left WWE.

The former WWE Champion sat down with ESPN's Marc Ramondi on Thursday and addressed the speculation surrounding AEW and his Starrcast appearance. Midway through the conversation, Punk stated that roughly a month ago Cody Rhodes (one of AEW's executive vice presidents) reached out to him via text message to discuss a potential deal.

"The last thing I got — I got a text from Cody [Rhodes]," Punk said. "And again, I almost don't even know how to reply to them sometimes, because if I reply, they do interviews and are like, 'Oh yeah, I just talked to Punk.; I'm kind of damned if I do, damned if I don't. I always think if somebody wants to do business with me, they can come talk to me. Texting offers isn't really a way to do good business, at least.

"It was texted through three people and an offer came in through text," he continued. "This is like a month ago, maybe."

"An offer for All Out?" Raimondi asked.

"I think it was just a general offer," Punk responded.

However later in the interview when Punk was asked if he'd be involved with a wrestling company by the end of 2020, he responded "I doubt it."

He then stated that he was not the same Punk who left WWE in early 2014, adding that "I've let all that go, and I've let all that go so long ago. But there are people that hold on to that. They still think or want me to be who I was. I'm not who I was yesterday."

At the beginning of the interview, Punk explained why he chose to do the appearance in the first place.

"The biggest thing was it's in my hometown," he said. "I get to go for one day, I get to have fun, I get to give back to the fans, so to speak. And I get to go home and rest afterward."

He then noted that he's well aware that the appearance reignited speculation that he'd be returning to wrestling.

"Oh yeah, you've gotta brace yourself for it," he said. "It's not even AEW. I'm gonna get a thousand questions about WWE. It comes with the territory.

"I think if there's an expectation, it's purely been built by them," he added. "My silence to some fans means something. They're trying to read the tea leaves, but there's nothing to read. I even feel like talking about it may feel like I'm putting some sort of negative slant on it, but I'm really not."

Punk's appearance at Starrcast III will be live-streamed on FITE TV on Aug. 11.