Report: Why CM Punk Was Open To Going Back To WWE Revealed

It emerged this week that CM Punk was open to making a shock return to WWE in December 2022 when relations between the 44-year-old and All Elite Wrestling were at a low point. 

Fightful Select reported that Punk encouraged the idea of him leaving AEW so he could return to WWE, with one of the rumoured pitches for Punk that made it back to the WWE locker room being a WrestleMania 39 match against Kevin Owens. The match would have came together following a Punk return in the 2023 Royal Rumble and his subsequent elimination from the match by KO.

There was never any serious consideration of Punk joining WWE from WWE or AEW, however.

Why Punk would want to go back to WWE following his acrimonious departure in 2014 puzzled some but Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful noted in an update that Punk was open to returning to WWE "because he just wanted to wrestle somewhere."

Punk had fallen out of love with pro wrestling for several years after he was fired by WWE in 2014 but he got the wrestling bug back in recent years which led to his AEW debut in August 2021. Punk has since been fired by AEW on September 2 following an investigation into his backstage altercation with Jack Perry at All In.

If Punk will return to WWE now that he is a free agent remains to be seen. Reports have indicated that any decision will be made by Endeavor once the WWE-UFC merger is completed, although the WWE locker room is split on the prospect of Punk coming back to the company.