CM Punk infamously walked out of WWE ten years ago. The Second City Saint had been working with various injuries throughout 2013 and had been frustrated with his position in the company heading into WWE WrestleMania 30. Tensions fully boiled over one fateful night in January 2014, as Punk had a heated conversation with Paul “Triple H” Levesque and Vince McMahon that ended with him packing his bags and going home, not to be seen in WWE again for nearly a decade. When that return did come in November 2023, Punk had immediately smoothed things over with Triple H, as the WWE Chief Content Officer shared a photo on social media of the two embracing backstage.
Punk’s relationship with McMahon post-return had remained a mystery. Just two months after his comeback at WWE Survivor Series, the longtime chairman resigned from WWE after a sex trafficking lawsuit was filed against him.
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CM Punk’s Lone Interaction With Vince McMahon
CM Punk had one brief conversation with Vince McMahon upon his WWE return.
Speaking on The MMA Hour, Punk revealed that he was visiting WWE headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut when he crossed paths with McMahon.
“I was in [WWE headquarters’ gym] and I was on the phone on the treadmill warming up. Vince’s trainers [say] ‘Hey, you’ve got to get off the phone. Vince doesn’t like it when people are on the phone in the gym,’” Punk recalled. “Then I saw him walking down into the gym. He came in for his daily workout.
“He gave me a big hug. He said ‘Welcome home. Good to see you. Let’s connect after I work out,’” Punk continued. “I said. Alright.’ Haven’t seen him since.”
McMahon had been fairly hands off with the WWE product around that time, seldom traveling to the arenas for television tapings. His creative power had dwindled significantly following WWE’s sale to Endeavor, as Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel delegated management control to rest in the hands of WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque. McMahon’s responsibilities were all but exclusive to the corporate side of the business.
Today, McMahon’s ties to WWE lie solely in his actively-decreasing stock. His resignation in the midst of this sex trafficking lawsuit is viewed at as permanent.
“I didn’t read all the allegations, I read text messages and went, ‘Oh, f–k this.’ It’s indefensible,” Punk said. “There’s victims here. What CM Punk thinks about Vince and the CM Punk and Vince relationship doesn’t mean f–king anything here. All that stuff takes a backseat. I’m more concerned about, going forward, how those people survive going through that trauma.”
