Cm Punk has revealed what it would take to get him to step back in the squared circle, in what would possibly be the most wildly anticipated return in wrestling history.
The chants of “CM Punk” still ring through crowds to this day – or at least did until audiences became virtual – and the Best In The World has opened up on Renee Paquette’s Oral Sessions podcast about precisely what would convince him to get back in the ring, and why fans maybe shouldn’t hold their breath for one more match.
“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, a story that would be fun to tell. I’ll play Devil’s advocate. Also, just the stupidest amount of money. So that’s one thing. If they’re like, ‘Hey, we’ve got no idea for you, we’re going to put you through the same stupid s*** where the creative’s going to stink and it’s not going to be fun – but here’s $100m, you’ve got to look at that like, ‘Well…’ Risk versus reward, you know what I mean?”
Punk would distribute some free advice, though, saying any company could just save themselves money by presenting a fun storyline, and delivering the analogy that he’s done everything and doesn’t quite know what that fun storyline is.
“But they could save themselves a whole lot of money if they just presented a fun storyline. Now, what that is, I don’t know. I’m a pretty picky guy – especially at this point. Think of it like an actor, he’s done all the Shakespeare roles, he’s played Jesus, he’s been a World War II hero, he’s been a Nazi, he’s been in space, he’s done every single role you could possibly do. What’s the role that’s going to interest them? I don’t know what that is and it’s not even up to me to come up with it.”
However, hypothetically, CM Punk did discuss how there are more “interesting” options for an AEW run, than a WWE return for him.
“I think there’s more interesting people on the AEW side of things for me to wrestle, but that’s just because I’ve never wrestled them before – Young Bucks, Kenny Omega. Talking about your husband, I look at that and I go, ‘Well, I wrestled him already.’ So, it’s just less interesting than something new.
“On the WWE side of things, I don’t know that there’s anybody there currently that I haven’t wrestled that I would be interested in wrestling.”
Renee asks if CM Punk would have wanted to wrestle Samoa Joe in WWE, following their storied history in ROH – with CM Punk saying it was a labour of love previously due to their creative input.
Punk would say, “I feel like a s***bag even saying that s**t-ton of money thing,” continuing, “On the WWE side of things, let’s be honest, we got ****. There’s baggage, right? There’s stuff that’s got to be worked through. So I don’t know how you get there. I don’t. I really don’t. I understand Roman’s doing awesome things now, which is great, but – outside of him – what’s the interesting thing I could do there?”
CM Punk and Renee Young would then joke that the former WWE Champion should return to “wrestle Asuka” or “dump Pam (Bayley) on her head” as well as discussing his run in Japan, and saying Okada would intrigue him, despite not seeing much of his stuff.
Interestingly, Roman Reigns being paired with Paul Heyman would leave a ready-made storyline there if the near-impossible happened – to which Punk said he would “dump Heyman on his head too” before saying Drew McIntyre is doing good things, but it isn’t “spicy” enough for him.
To conclude, CM Punk would reiterate how he’s open to communication – but that he always has been. However, the former WWE Champion would say he’s concentrating on acting right now.