8 Things We Learned From CM Punk On Stephanie McMahon's WWE Show

It'd be real easy to look at Stephanie McMahon's new ESPN show as a mere WWE puff piece. In some respects, it is, but there's also merit to the idea that Steph is a wrestling super fan. She did grow up around the business, after all, and there's a giddiness to some of her remarks about Andre The Giant or revisiting old moments in retrospect that'd be hard to fake. McMahon's love of this stuff doesn't seem put on.

That helped turn the debut edition of 'Stephanie's Places' into something surprising. Of course, the strength of comments offered by both Triple H and (most importantly) CM Punk was always going to make or break the show. The good news is that Punk was as forthright as ever, and some behind the scenes footage of him interacting with Steph and Hunter helped tell a cohesive story of reflected change.

No, this wasn't the lengthy sit-down podcast-style interview some might've been expecting it to be, but instead a general snapshot of Punk's memorable return at Survivor Series: WarGames 2023. The timing could be considered odd, because it's been a minute since that happened, but there's plenty of goodwill circling Punk these days so another helping doesn't hurt.

The entire episode was only 25 minutes long, and the chat with Punk only took up around 10 mins of the runtime, but there was plenty to dig into here. Here's everything gleaned from a quick visit that included valuable insight on Punk's comeback. Oh, and he's a lot more like Triple H than you might imagine.

Here's what you need to know.

Ask any hardcore fan to name a pair of WWE stars who are friends in real life and this duo wouldn't spring to mind. Nobody would imagine that CM Punk and Stephanie McMahon have much to talk about behind the scenes, but this debut episode reveals that they were closer than some might think during Punk's first stint in the company between 2006-2014.

Opening up, Steph said she wasn’t sure if it was her place to say this anymore, but wanted to welcome Punk “home”. Retorting, the man himself said it “absolutely is” her place, thanked McMahon, and said the whole experience of reconnecting is cathartic for him. Yep, some watching might be taken aback by the immediate emotion between them that's on display here.

It was an unexpected treat.

There are several visibly moments during which both catch themselves and stop the tears before they start flowing. Stephanie, in particular, seems to be caught between her old management role and one of a well-meaning fangirl who just likes to see everybody happy. Given everything that's been going on with her family away from the cameras over the past couple of years, it's nice to see her with a smile on her face.

"Cathartic" is a great word to sum up Punk's WWE comeback. He's older, wiser, has proved those who thought he was finished wrong, and doesn't have time for the same sort of baggage that weighed him down first time around or blighted his AEW run afterwards. Those waiting on everything to blow up and go wrong could be waiting a while - this is a different Punk, which is something Steph seems fascinated by.