During a recent interview with Wrestling Inc., Cody Rhodes revealed that a very real offer was made to former WWE Champion CM Punk to make his return to the professional wrestling world in some capacity at the upcoming “All In” event on September 1st. Here’s what he had to say:
“Yes, I mean I talked to [Punk] just vaguely,” Rhodes said. “He even at one point said ‘nobody’s asked me — hey here’s how much we’ll pay you and here’s who you’ll wrestle.’
“Matt [Jackson] actually made a full offer or full pitch for his services and I think Punk is focused on the Mixed Martial Arts element of his career.
“One of the reasons we didn’t first come out and say, ‘here’s who we want you to wrestle,’ because I think we just wanted him to be a part of the event for a lot of fans, he’s captured their imagination even with the amount of time he’s been gone. He has a mythical presence to them. I thought it would be good for him to connect with them, but that’s me, you know?
“Nobody owns Punk but Punk, so if he wants to do Mixed Martial Arts, go for it. He was always very nice to me and helpful to me in OVW. I always looked at All In with the perspective that it’s about the present and future of the industry and not really about cheap pops, even though I’m sure they’ll be plenty of those on the show. Matt had reached out to [Punk] and made him a real offer. I think Punk is set on not being part of it.”
