CM Punk gives more insight to his return.
CM Punk shocked the world when he returned to WWE at WWE Survivor Series 2023, nearly a decade after walking out of the company following the 2014 WWE Royal Rumble. Punk was out of wrestling until returning with AEW in August 2021, and made his feelings known about WWE and how things were run during his time away.
Speaking to Jimmy Traina on the SI Media podcast, Punk was asked if he had in his mind that he would ever return to WWE when he was out of the company.
"Obviously, my attitude ten years ago was, 'I'm done with wrestling.' There are certain people that want to crucify me for that, but the truth is, I was so burnt out. You dedicate your life to something. It took me X amount of years to get to WWE, and I was there for ten years. People don't realize, who is the one guy that wrestled the most matches every year in WWE, for consecutive years? It was me. I was burnt out. It takes a while to comeback from burning out. Across the board, everybody, I feel, has done it in some way. Paul Heyman left. Paul Heyman came back. The door being open with Vince (McMahon) leaving, really kind of expedited things. Being told that it's a completely different place, and kind of having blind faith to go back into that is a risk. Now, I can tell you, it's a completely different place," said Punk.
Asked if he would have gone back if Vince was still there, Punk replied, "I don't think so. No. Some day I'll write a book and I'll tell everybody."
In June 2022, McMahon stepped down as CEO and chairman of WWE after allegations of hush money were reported. He remained involved with the creative process until the WWE-UFC merger in September 2023, when he became executive chairman of TKO.
He resigned from TKO in January 2024 after allegations of sex trafficking and sexual assault, and a lawsuit filed against him and the company by former employee Janel Grant.
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