Over the last week, there were conflicting reports on whether CM Punk and WWE were in talks to see him make a return. The original report noted a deal hadn’t been reached, but the two sides were in talks with Punk intending to make a return.
Fightful had a story on Tuesday with WWE talent and a higher-up denying any talks happening.
While speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer noted WWE has turned down bringing back CM Punk for now.
Meltzer: “Yeah, they turned him down.”
Bryan Alvarez: “Take us through all of this from the beginning. What happened? What did you report on?”
Meltzer: “The decision was….he wanted to go there, and the decision was a no. I mean, it can always change. And it was brought up to me that, like, ‘Look, there’s no such thing as no forever when it comes to WWE. But it’s a no for now.’ Yeah. Well, there you go. That was the decision that was made. You know, it’s Vince’s decision, Vince, Nick Khan, Paul Levesque. And obviously, they decided that the negatives outweighed the positives. And you can’t argue with that. There were negatives, there were positives, and there were past dealings. And, I mean, it was a different situation than the last time. But they did if you remember, there were two other opportunities once when FOX pressured them to take him and Vince said, ‘Anyone else but him? No.’ And then I mean, the second time, which was about what was it, about ten months ago, I mean, they were talking again at that point, but he was still under contract to AEW, And I was told that that would be a no. But it’s easy to say it’s a no because there’s no chance that they could get him because of the contract. But this time, they could and they decided to pass.”
Alvarez: “So aren’t you not supposed to talk to the other side when you’re under contract?”
Meltzer: “Well, like, that never happens. Yeah.”
Alvarez: “Well, that is the update, everyone. As of right now. Hey, no, that’s it.”
Meltzer: “Right now, no, it could change. It could always change. And it was made very clear to me that if business went down, they know it’s a card that they could play, but is it worth it and how bad is their business going to go down, really? I mean, even if this hot streak, as far as live events cools off and I guess eventually it always does, I mean, that’s just the reality of wrestling. It’s always ups and downs. But even if it does, it’s like, how much are they going to really be hurting? I mean, their profit margin is so ridiculous. Who needs the headaches? I mean, that’s I’m sure that’s the way they looked at it in a couple of years. I mean, look, Bill Goldberg went there. You know what I mean? And Bill Goldberg, Ultimate Warrior. Those were the two guys, the two guys that Vince said never. He brought both of them back at one point. I mean, Warrior was a hard one. And Goldberg. I mean, they end up working together for years and getting a push and everything. Other people like Bruno, I mean, I think they always would have taken Bruno. That was more of a Bruno thing. Who’s the other one? Bret? Well, they always wanted Bret back even though people thought they would never take Bret back. I knew that they would. And I always figured that something would happen there. But Goldberg, I didn’t expect that one to happen. I mean, but, they not only brought him back, but they pushed the hell out of him. A lot of that was Heyman and Lesnar really wanting to put him over because they felt that they, would be a good opponent for them. But somebody may need a good opponent in a couple of years, so it’s out there.”
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