8 Radical Ideas To Save CM Punk

When asked about a possible return to professional wrestling, Punk has usually been unequivocal about one thing. As far as he’s concerned, he’s never going back to WWE.

And that makes sense (shut up, it totally does). Aside from possibly headlining WrestleMania, Punk feels he’s done everything possible in the company. Money isn’t his primary motivator and, realistically, if he were to bury the hatchet with them and return, there’s no guarantee they wouldn’t try to screw with him once they had him back.

Historically speaking, WWE tends to write revenge into the storylines when they entice black sheep back into the fold. Brock Lesnar left the WWE in 2004 under very similar highly acrimonious and litigious circumstances, and even he had to eat a dodgy loss to John Cena in his comeback bout when he returned in 2012.

However, understandably wary about making definitive statements that he then goes back on - apparently us ‘internet dweebs’ will blow up his Twitter if that happens - Punk’s been a little more cagey about the possibility of coming back to wrestling:

“...you never know, I could pop up here and there... Let me explain that to you even better. It's not going to even be televised. It's going to be me in a ninja f*cking outfit, wrestling one of my buddies - and nobody's ever going to know. It's going to be very 'Monty Python', so to speak" - ESPN interview, June 2016

He’s clearly talking about just coming back to wrestling occasionally for a laugh, as an inside joke between old friends on the indie circuit - something that might not even make the news until days later. However, if he wanted to wrestle for fun, in an environment where outlandish creativity trumps office politics, he could do a lot worse than sign up for season four of Lucha Underground.

It’s doubtful that they can pay him anything like what he earned as a top guy in the WWE, but again, money isn’t necessarily a prime factor for Punk these days. More than that, Lucha Underground is something markedly different to the wrestling he’s used to: it’s a TV melodrama about a sinister lucha libre promotion haunted by supernatural, dark forces. This is a career sideline for most of the wrestlers involved, and the only pressure is to make outstanding television.

Lucha Underground has had genuine star power before (most notably with the introduction of Rey Mysterio last season), but this would be a coup by anyone’s standards, and CM Punk’s involvement could potentially push the show to the next level. More than that, it’s the perfect catalyst to reignite the burned-out star’s passion for the business again.