CM Punk’s return to WWE in November 2024 at the Survivor Series PLE shocked fans after he was released in 2014. Over the years, he had taken shots at WWE and spoke about his frustrations in WWE during his appearance on the infamous Colt Cabana podcast.
Punk confirmed in the past that he signed the deal shortly before he made his entrance to the arrival of stunned WWE fans. WWE planned for him to challenge Seth Rollins for the World Heavyweight Title at WrestleMania XL. Unfortunately, plans changed when Punk suffered a torn triceps during the Men’s Royal Rumble Match.
Rollins revealed on the latest episode of Insight With Chris Van Vliet that he reached out to Punk over the years to see if he would return to WWE.
“These are promos, these are things that I’ve thought about saying publicly for a long time, and things I’ve wanted to say to his face for a long time and haven’t been able to or have said privately, you know, occasionally I would get asked about him over the years, and you would see some of it slip out, but most of the time, I just never wanted to acknowledge his existence because he was such a cancer to my career for many years, while he was gone, was an intentional one. You know what? I mean, he was a parasite. He really just wanted to, it seemed like every time he could take a potshot at me or the company he was trying to and so I never wanted to give that credence because I just kind of looked at him as like a troll I don’t want to acknowledge these things because then it looks like they matter and they don’t. But it did bother me internally because, you know, we were trying to that roster from, like, I mean, he leaves in 2014, right? I think, like, we were hustling, we were trying our damnedest, and we were given garbage a lot of the time, and we were making the best of it. And like, you know, he was in a position where he’d made a bunch of money and could just dip and go, and there wasn’t an alternative, AEW, didn’t exist at the time. There was nowhere else to go. Like, what are we going to do? Just pack up and leave because CM Punk feelings were hurt because that’s what he wanted from guys. He didn’t want people who were his friends to stay and work for the company because he felt like it was some sort of betrayal to him. And I’m like, dude, A, this is my dream job. B, this is how I earn a living. And like, I’m trying to set up. I’m trying to get to your level. I don’t have the luxury to just quit. I can’t go anywhere else and get paid this kind of money, like my career. I don’t get to work till I’m 60 either, you know. So there were, it was one of the most selfish things I’d ever seen out of a human, like leaving the way he did, and then kind of like expecting other people to follow him, and then, like, taking shots at the place from a distance when he wouldn’t even explain to his friends, like, why he was so resistant to continuing that friendship, like, I never got an answer…..Like, we were friends till he left, you know, and we had a mentor, mentee kind of relationship, you know, at that point, because I was a lot younger, so, like, I didn’t push. I sent him some texts and call them like after he left, but I wasn’t, like, comfortable enough with him to like, because we weren’t peers. But, you know, he was here and I was here, so I didn’t want to, like, push that envelope. So, after a while, I just let it go. And then, even over the years, I reached out to him a couple of times to try to, like, engage and just see where he was at and if he was interested in coming back. And nothing, no response, except whenever he would get a chance, he would just talk as much crap as he could. And so, yeah, I had all of this stuff bottled up for 10 years to finally be able to get out there on a microphone and say it, and it’s probably not even articulated the best it can, but there’s just so much real. I mean, hatred is a strong word, but it’s as close to hatred as you can get, like, animosity, resentment, animosity, like just anger, you know? It’s really palpable. I think, you know, the reason people attach to the promos is because they can see that there is, you know, real emotion behind them for me, and so it’s a very cathartic experience for me. I’ll be happy to kind of just like, get that physicality out on the sixth and and hopefully be done with it.”
Rollins stated he thought there was might be a chance he could return to WWE when he did the WWE Backstage show on FS1 before going to AEW.
“You know, when he joined the broadcast team on FOX when they were doing that Backstage show I think it was, I thought to myself, Okay, maybe there’s an opportunity here. And then when he joined AEW, I kind of thought, you know, maybe he’ll have a twilight run here. But there were then a lot of times where I just thought, you know, because it wasn’t like, you know, I know he makes it out like he didn’t really like the other guy that was in charge. But the truth is, he didn’t really get along with the current guy in charge, either. You know, that wasn’t like they were pals as well. So I think that even when Triple H took over, I didn’t think there’d be an olive branch to be had, so kind of 50-50, but I would waver more towards No. I never thought it was going to happen.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit Insight With Chris Van Vliet with an h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
