Marc Raimondi of ESPN has a great article up looking at the return of CM Punk to pro wrestling.
It turns out WWE had apparently reached out to Punk around December 2020 to potentially bring him in. However, he felt like WWE “played games” during the talks.
Punk on his return: “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime spot. I’m never going to get a chance to do something like that again. I don’t know if there’s ever gonna be another chance for anybody to do something like that again. Perfect storm.”
CM Punk on WWE playing games when they reached out to him: “I remember one of the first things I ever said to them was, ‘Above all, don’t play games.’ And they played games. Some things never change. … When you enter a conversation with people you have a past with and you know who they are, how seriously can you take it? I know exactly who they are and they just continue to prove it. I’m trying to be as diplomatic as I possibly can.”
Punk on there being no such thing as “the boys’ in the wrestling business: “To me, honestly, there’s no such thing as ‘the boys.’ If there was such a thing as ‘the boys,’ there would be a f***ing union. And too many times you see people just get so unfairly treated and there’s a whole locker room full of people who would be — if it was them — be like, ‘Hey guys, help me.’ And I was one of those people. The business is always going to be the business. It’s built the way it is. I will always tell individual wrestlers, you have to protect yourself. You can’t expect other people to come to your aid. I found out the hard way. There’s other people that it’s still happening [to]. You can be loyal to a company that wouldn’t piss on your ashes, if you burned alive, or you could just make sure at the end of the day that you’re happy and you’re healthy.”
