8 Things We Learned From CM Punk On Stephanie McMahon's WWE Show
3. He Felt The Same Way Triple H Did In 2002
Something else was playing on repeat in Punk's mind too: "Are they gonna remember me? Are they gonna care?". He wasn't convinced that WWE's more casual audience would give a hoot about his 2023 return. After all, they had new heroes and villains to both cheer and boo. What if the name CM Punk was washed up old hat and meant nothing to the market leader's business bottom line?!
Enter Triple H to do a little contrast and compare action.
Steph spoke with her hubby about his own return way back in 2002. Hunter said he was fretting about whether or not people would even care about his comeback at all. It was Steve Austin who pulled him aside backstage at Madison Square Garden and said the building was sold out because of 'The Game'. That little arm around the shoulder put a pep in Triple H’s step. Punk had the exact same concerns in 2023, except he'd been away for almost a full decade.
Trips had only been out for around half a year when he returned looking big as a house inside the hallowed halls of MSG. Relevance within the WWF/WWE sphere was still firmly on his side, but...could Punk claim the same? Apparently, yes, but Punk pointed out to Stephanie that he's probably always had more in common with her husband than either of them would care to admit.
Both are students of the game (no pun intended) who take minor details personally and obsess over every aspect of their work. It's taken a lot of aggro to figure out that they're cut from the same cloth in some respects.