Former WWE Superstar CM Punk has not been seen on WWE television since the 2014 edition of the Royal Rumble pay-per-view. He walked out of the company the next day and has not looked back since then. Following his WWE exit, many fans have been wanting to see Punk make his return to the company every year. He has yet to make his return to the squared circle and at this point, it seems very unlikely. A WWE Superstar was also previously punished for ripping off CM Punk.
CM Punk has been in talks with AEW for quite a while as indicated by reports and it all came true as The Second City Saint made his return to pro wrestling on AEW Rampage: The First Dance back in August last year.
During the post-AEW All Out media scrum, CM Punk verbally attacked Colt Cabana, Hangman Page, Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks. Ace Steel’s wife, who has a broken foot, was in the room when Ace and CM Punk fought Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks backstage at AEW All Out.
During a recent PWTorch.com audio show, Wade Keller talked about some of the issues between Punk and AEW and then he talked about what someone with influence in WWE said about Punk possibly returning.
Keller said, “Quite a few people I spoke with who had become familiar with Punk over the years had predicted when he signed with AEW that his stint with AEW wouldn’t go well and wouldn’t last, citing his personality, and his general history of discontent.
 “As I talked about this fall, Paul Levesque is more likely to bring Punk back than Vince McMahon would have been, not less. That doesn’t mean Paul Levesque was a fan of CM Punk. But Paul Levesque is in a different position than Vince McMahon. Vince McMahon never believed in CM Punk. And therefore, in the way he pushed Punk never really fully got behind him. Paul Levesque, while he thinks Punk personality wise might be more trouble than he’s worth, has shown a history of recognizing wrestlers who are over with today’s fans that he himself might not have predicted would be over…”
“Somebody who’s currently in WWE, and is within the sphere of influence of Paul Levesque’s decision making would be a hard ‘No’ as of me asking this person today. A hard ‘No’ on endorsing the return of CM Punk, even if it would help business. I won’t go into exactly what was said. But when I asked, I got a long paragraph of one sentence after another of negative comments about how they feel about Punk now, compared to 8, 9, 10 years ago, based on what’s happened in AEW, in the last 13 months. And by the way, related to this, I talked to three people of significant stature in AEW in the last couple of days…I asked how would a vote go in the AEW locker room if they were asked if they wanted Punk to return? One person said he wouldn’t fare very well. Another person said he thinks he might not get a single vote. And someone else says he doesn’t think he’d get many votes…I think he’d get some personally just based on conversations I’ve had the last six weeks with others. The three people I just talked to in the last few days are higher, prominent people of influence in that locker room. So that tells you something about his standing and why I think if Punk were to return it wouldn’t necessarily go well for him in either place. And I think that’s going to that falls into the calculation of Tony Khan right now. And it might fall into the calculation of Paul Levesque. I still believe Levesque would be more likely to bring him in than Vince McMahon for the reasons I said, but I think there would be some pushback by people in Levesque’s sphere of influence.”
