CM Punk Fuels Speculation About His Pro Wrestling Return
CM Punk suddenly became the center of the pro wrestling world again on Wednesday when Fightful [...]
CM Punk suddenly became the center of the pro wrestling world again on Wednesday when Fightful Select's Sean Ross Sapp reported that Punk was in serious negotiations about making a comeback. The report didn't say definitively where the former WWE Champion would be going, but did name AEW as the most likely landing spot. Fans instantly started speculating that Punk would return at AEW's All Out pay-per-view in September, which will take place out the outskirts of Punk's hometown of Chicago. Punk decided to stay quiet about the rumors throughout the day, but then returned to Instagram on Thursday with a story post that instantly fueled speculation about All Out.
Punk's story showed a black screen while the song "Sirius" by The Alan Parsons Project blared in the background. Fans of the Chicago Bulls franchise will instantly recognize this song as the entrance song for the Chicago Bulls. The franchise has been using the song for decades, but it's closely associated with Michael Jordan's six NBA Championships from 1991-98.
CM Punk.
The Last Dance. pic.twitter.com/dxbbsAef6O
— Danny (@dajosc11) July 22, 2021
Could this be a legitimate tease by Punk? Or is he simply playing with fans as they try to guess what his next move will be? Only time will tell.
Punk initially departed from the WWE in 2014 but dipped his toe back into the wrestling world in 2019 as an analyst for the Fox Sports 1 show WWE Backstage. He never fully shut the door on making a comeback to WWE, but did tell Renee Paquette in an interview late last year that AEW interested him more.
"I think the landscape currently is much different than when I left," Punk said while on Oral Sessions."You can play the game where you're like, 'Oh, AEW was an option, would you have gone right after you left WWE?' If you are going to play that game, there is no way they (WWE) would have handled it the way they handled it with suspending me for two months and nobody contacting me and the next thing I know, I got my release papers on my wedding day. That wouldn't have happened if there was an AEW. Because then they probably would have approached me and been like, 'Hey, your suspension is up. Ready to come back to work? Let's work this out.' Or handle it like any other sports organization would have handled [a] star pitcher f—ing going home. They're not just going to let him leave the team, go to a rival organization."
"What would it take? Oh gosh. Without wanting to insult anybody on either side of the fence, any WWE talent or AEW talent, it would take, above all, an interesting scenario," he said. "A story that would be fun to tell and also just the stupidest amount of money. But, they can save themselves a lot of money if they present a fun storyline. Now, what that is, I don't know. I'm a pretty picky guy, especially at this point. I think there are more interesting people on the AEW side of things for me to wrestle and that's because I've never wrestled them before. Young Bucks, Kenny Omega."