In a recent interview with Counted Out, WWE producer TJ Wilson discussed CM Punk’s WWE return at Survivor Series: WarGames 2023, noting he “had no clue” it was occurring.
However, Wilson noted that he wouldn’t have been surprised either way. He said,
“I didn’t know this was happening. You hear the rumors and I remember coming into the building that day, ‘When I leave here today, if Punk is back, I will and won’t be surprised. If he’s not back, I will or won’t be surprised.’ It’s one of those things where you felt…Randy was coming back, there was a different energy backstage and in the arena throughout the whole show. All State Arena always has great energy, but it was amplified a little bit more. At the end of the night, if the return hadn’t happened, it wouldn’t have been a giant disappointment in the sense that was the reason people were excited. The show was great, Randy’s return was awesome, and it was one of those things where, when that music hit, the people were like, ‘Oh my God, this is really happening.’ It was insane. I had no clue. I’m not sure when people knew or didn’t know. For example, if the guys in the ring didn’t know, it’s not like any physicality happening, it was just Punk coming to the entrance way. In terms of trying to get the surprise, if nobody knew, I would understand why it would be kept so tight-lipped that even the guys in the ring didn’t know. Did they know? Honestly, I don’t know. I didn’t ask them. I would assume they had a clue. I had a clue of…like I said, I had a sense of ‘it very much can happen.’ If anything I’ve learned in WWE, it’s that this can happen. Never say never in WWE when it comes to things like this. I remember thinking, ‘this is something in my brain that will never happen, so that tells me it can happen in this company.’”
Punk will wrestle his first WWE match at the December 26th live event at Madison Square Garden and then at the December 30 event in Inglewood, California. His opponent is Dominik Mysterio in both instances.