CM Punk made his WWE return at the latest episode of WWE Backstage but as it turns out, All Elite Wrestling was also on the chase and they had tried to get Punk signed to the company.
Bryan Alvarez talked about Punk’s return during the latest episode of Wrestling Observer Live and revealed that the AEW president Tony Khan himself had met the former WWE Champion.
According to the wrestling journalist, the former ROH Champion did negotiate with the upstart promotion and he was offered a ‘lot of money’ by them but he still chose the Fox gig over the AEW contract:
“Punk did, in fact, negotiate with AEW. [He] met in person with Tony Khan about AEW and they offered him a lot of money and he ended up with this WWE on Fox gig.”
It’s unknown why Punk chose the WWE return over AEW debut but it’s likely that he isn’t thinking about making an in-ring return anytime soon which would have been the main feature of his deal with Tony Khan’s company opposed to the Backstage gig where he will be working as an on-air personality only.
