CM Punk Recalls Chaotic Backstage Reaction to His WWE Return

CM Punk returned to WWE at Survivor Series 2023.

By Haley Miller

Almost one year ago CM Punk returned to the WWE for the first time in almost a decade. The shocking moment surprised fans and wrestlers all around the world as it appeared he may never return. At least some of that was in part due to Vince McMahon who completely resigned from his position early last year. While many have discussed the public chaos of Punk's polarizing return, very little is known about what the backstage perception was actually like. In an interview with No-Contest Wrestling, Punk recalls his emotions, chaos and confusion of being in Gorilla position before his music hit.

Punk says he had been brought out and ran into Bayley and William Regal who were shocked to see him. While they briefly caught up, he also spotted Stephanie McMahon and had a moment with her as well. When it came time to discuss the plan of attack, however, Punk and Triple H weren't exactly on the same page.

"I don't know what to do. I lose my composure. All I know is I'm coming out [and] I'm trying to talk to Triple H over the table, and it's so loud," Punk said. "They hit my music [and I say] 'I don't know what I'm doing. What am I doing?' He's like, 'Go walk to the cage.' 'All the way down to the cage?' He was trying to tell me there were the two cages for babyfaces and heels for WarGames. He wanted me to walk down and stand there. In my head, I'm going all the way to the cage. We're going back and forth and freaking out. He rips his headset off, 'What are we doing?!' Obviously, we figured it out."

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This Saturday, October 5th, Punk will go head-to-head with Drew McIntyre one last time, however this time it'll be inside of a Cage. Punk has a far greater success rate when it comes to Cage matches. If you count house show matches, he's won 18 total Cage matches in his WWE career while McIntyre has only defeated three men: Dolph Ziggler, Karrion Kross and Sami Zayn. McIntyre recently told ComicBook that he wants to bring back the "mystique" of Hell in a Cell.

"So many matches I saw at Hell in the Cell just for the sake of having a cell match. Just wasted the cell, which was known as literally the last resort. And now to get away from it for a while, to keep it away as it is such a dangerous match," McIntyre said. "It had some mystique. Let it build that mystique back up. Let a story build that Punk and I built organically through a genuine dislike for each other, but also professionally, we're very good at our jobs. But it got to the point where, how do we finish this? I know how. Hell in the Cell, the last resort, a true blood feud. A true blood feud ending well."

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