When information broke that CM Punk was returning to WWE after an AEW run stuffed with the very best of highs and the bottom of lows, it received followers excited in a method few different expertise bulletins have in years.
With Cody Rhodes on prime, The Bloodline working wild, and the promotion on a scorching streak of sold-out exhibits and record-breaking gates, the addition of Punk gave followers one other main win to have fun within the warfare towards Tony Khan and firm, even when AEW will perpetually boast the return of the “Second Metropolis Saint” to skilled wrestling.
However why? Why did Punk select AEW over WWE when he theoretically may have labored for both? Nicely, Punk broke that down in a pre-Mania interview with The Ringer, noting how his eventual run with WWE got here into existence and why he selected to return to AEW first.
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“I had a dialog with Triple H on Thanksgiving. Instantly, I used to be like, ‘This dude is taking time away from his daughters and spouse and turkey to speak to me.’ It isn’t a factor the place they want this massive famous person. They did not have to signal me. They had been doing positive. I simply suppose he, in a method, acknowledged that that is the best factor to do. The place prior administrations would take a look at stuff and go, ‘Nope, that is the best way we’re doing it as a result of I stated so.’ Yeah, however when you did it this fashion, it is going to profit this many extra folks,’” Punk famous through Fightful.
“My massive factor about part-timers again within the day was, they will come again and foremost occasion, I perceive The Rock is field workplace in comparison with CM Punk in 2013. I perceive that, however in some unspecified time in the future, when you do not hand the baton to anyone else, Rock is just not going to come back again, and now there may be no person at that stage. That is type of how I at all times seen the enterprise and I feel me and Triple H at all times butt heads as a result of we had been too related again then. We have grown, and now I like working with the man; it is nice. I do not say for him, both, as a result of I do not really feel like I work for this man. I really feel like I come to work and it is extra collaborative than something it is ever been, and I could not have seen that till I used to be truly in. I type of took a chance, whereas in 2021, once I got here again, I went with the satan I did not know as a substitute of the satan I knew.”
Now granted, in 2021, WWE was a really completely different place, with the promotion struggling to get a lot getting in the best way of sustained hype and momentum below Vince McMahon. When Paul “Triple H” Levesque took over, nonetheless, the notion of the promotion modified significantly, with followers turning into intrigued by the promotion’s new route. Had Levesque been in energy in 2021, who is aware of, perhaps Punk would have returned there as a substitute, however after displaying he can nonetheless draw and work in AEW, his spot on the roster turned extra of a positive factor.