CM Punk Reveals Surprise Reason Behind His WWE Return (WWE News)

Ahead of headlining WrestleMania 42 Night 2, CM Punk has opened up on one of the reasons behind his WWE return two-and-a-half years ago.

The Second City famously shocked the wrestling world by returning in the final moments of Survivor Series 2023, receiving an understandably monstrous pop from his hometown Chicago crowd. Since then, Punk has had two runs as the World Heavyweight Champion, headlined Night 1 of WrestleMania 41, and has been involved in plentiful high-profile feuds with the likes of Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, and Drew McIntyre.

Speaking on the All the Smoke: Unplugged podcast, CM Punk revealed that he reached out to Triple H after seeing a clip of Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior during the weekend of WrestleMania 30, where the Ultimate One was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. At that point, Hogan and Warrior had not seen each other or spoken in years, and the two had often thrown shade at each other in interviews. But that weekend, all of that was left in the past, as the two reconciled. Warrior would appear on the post-'Mania Raw, and would pass away the following day after suffering a heart attack.

For Punk, this hit home the point that life is too short to hold onto grudges.

As the Straight-Edge Superstar put it when discussing how the WWE today is vastly different from the WWE of yesteryear, including talents' home lives being treated as a priority by management:

"We've had the conversations, it's how we got to a point where I was asked, 'Hey, what does it look like? Can we get you to come back?' It's because, after a while, I reached out to Triple H, and I knew he had his heart condition thing, and I had seen a clip of Hogan and the Warrior. And everything we do is filmed; what's real, what's not, and it's Hogan, so you don't know what's the truth. But they're just having this conversation and they're just kind of apologising and forgiving each other, then a couple of days later the Ultimate Warrior dies. It just made me realise, this s**t ain’t worth it, and I don’t care. And I get a call from Nick [Khan], like, ‘Hey, we want you to come back.’ Oh, interesting. What does that look like? Is the place different?"

Elsewhere in this interview, CM Punk also detailed how main eventing WrestleMania was another driving factor behind his return, explaining how, if he'd have headlined 'Mania during his previous WWE run, he would've been far less open to returning. Likewise, he credited his stint as Ricky Rabies on Heels, Starz's two-season drama series about a family-owned Georgia wrestling promotion, for first reigniting his passion for the business.

If you use any of the above quotes, please credit All the Smoke: Unplugged, with a H/T to WhatCulture Wrestling.

Get Surfshark for the bargain price of just $1.78 per month! Valid only until April 19th! https://get.surfshark.net/aff_c?offer_id=1030&aff_id=1691&url_id=2561