11 Times WWE Was Better Than Literally EVERYTHING
2. The Return Of CM Punk
In an industry with very few guarantees, wrestling will often rely on big returns or comebacks to be sure of at least one major reaction on a show.
"What will they do when the pops run out?" was a bad faith bomb lobbed at AEW during creative boom years for the company that just happened to feature various stars jumping, coming back from serious injury or - in CM Punk's case specifically - returning from industry exile completely. The same criticism was just as unfair when it was fired back at WWE following the monster success of AJ Lee's return in September 2025, and was again when "hell froze over" and The Punker returned to the market leader at Survivor Series.
It was - as plenty knew at the time - so, so much more than that.
Many contrasting things were simultaneously true about Punk's WWE return, such is the nature of the man. Yes he'd torched his own run in All Elite Wrestling and almost done the same to the entire company in the process, awash with principle and fury in equal measure. Yes, he was ostensibly going back on a lot of other principles simply by walking through WWE doors again, and into a locker room with mixed (to say the least) feelings towards him. And yes, he became a totem for both sides, bad and good, in a never-ending tribal war between deep rooted fans of the two North American majors.
But for all these reasons and more, he was a symbol of how bold the company and historically safe booker Triple H were prepared to be in extending and expanding the boom beyond what many thought possible. Could Punk be controlled this time around? Could he exert his own control for the good of his stories and those of others? Would it explode? Or, just as fascinatingly, would it thrive?
Unknowable, which was just more value added as he walked back into the company just short of ten years after he first walked out. On that night, the pops in buildings and on screens spoke for themselves. In the aftermath, the promotion and the performer would have to do the talking. There's a reason he'll drop in promos sometimes that he's aware of the magnitude of himself. It's because he sees these videos, these reactions, these emotions too. That's a power, and a monetisable one at that in a cut-throat business that historically values very little else.