CM Punk Explains Why He Didn't Go Back to WWE

CM Punk will wrestle his first match in All Elite Wrestling this Sunday at the All Out [...]

By Connor Casey

CM Punk will wrestle his first match in All Elite Wrestling this Sunday at the All Out pay-per-view. The former WWE Champion made his official return to pro wrestling on Aug. 20, more than seven years after his tumultuous departure from the WWE. Punk hinted at why he left the company in his opening promo, saying, "I was never going to get healthy physically, mentally, spiritually or emotionally staying in the same place that got me sick in the first place." He's since gone into detail in interviews about why he opted not to return to WWE, even after dipping his toe back into their world with his role on FOX Sports 1's WWE Backstage show from 2019-2020.

"I'm not sure it was ever really an option to go back there," Punk said in an interview with the New York Post this week. "There was so much history there, so much baggage."

He then went into detail about where he was mentally in his final days with WWE while on Busted Open Radio, saying (h/t Cageside Seats), "In my head I'm always like, well what would Harley Race do? He would keep going. There's only so many times you can get hurt and keep going. I was never given time off after an elbow surgery, a knee surgery, narrowly avoided a hip surgery. It was always, 'No, we need you.' And it's nice to be needed, but they will run you dry. And I was on that path. I watched too many friends get swallowed up by this business, and by drugs, and everything else they maybe thought that they had to do to keep going. And I was a cycle breaker. I took myself out of it. I've never really been proud of myself about a lot of things, but that's just a real life thing that I was proud of myself about.

"Because I took a step back and I was like, they're not listening to me. I'm sick, I'm hurt," Punk said. "They're not going to take care of me. I had to take care of myself, you know what I mean? It caused a lot of drama, a lot of silly baggage. But I'm alive; I woke up this morning. It sounds dramatic, but it's not bulls—."

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