Officially, CM Punk is yet to join the WWE brand as a wrestler. But the media outlets are seeing his show-up on WWE Backstage as the stepping stone of his second innings in the company.
Last Wednesday night, he shocked the world by appearing on the WWE talk-show hosted by Renee Young and co on FS1. It was the first time that the ‘Cult of Personality’ was back on WWE TV in nearly six years to make headlines.
Major update on CM Punk’s return
Additional reports are now available on CM Punk suggesting that he was approached by WWE’s rival brand before joining the show on FOX. It was none other than All Elite Wrestling who wanted him to join the brand, earlier this year. According to Bryan Alvarez on Wrestling Observer Live, CM Punk turned down big-money offers from AEW before accepting the deal from FOX.
Despite what the media previously claimed, CM Punk met with AEW President & CEO Tony Khan, in-person to receive a lucrative deal. There’s no specific update on what the deal was about.
But Alvarez mentioned that it was reportedly “a lot of money” being offered to the former WWE Champion. Turning down the deal would also mean that he might have had no plan for an in-ring future. Here’s more from wrestlingINC.com regarding Punk,
“Punk is signed to a FOX deal, not WWE. It’s been reported that Punk’s agents contacted FOX a few months back, which led to the initial tryout in Los Angeles, where the show is filmed each week. WWE did give their blessing to the hire, but this was a FOX decision.”
We should note that WWE has nothing to do at this point to introduce CM Punk back on TV. It was entirely a move by FOX to pull up their TV viewership. But WWE did give their blessing to this hiring.
.@CMPunk #1 trend worldwide ✅#WWEBackstage #2 trend worldwide ✅
— FOX Sports PR (@FOXSportsPR) November 13, 2019
Tune in next week for @CMPunk, @ReneeYoungWWE, @BookerT5x and more
?: WWE BACKSTAGE – Tues., 11/19, 11:00 PM ET, @FS1 pic.twitter.com/J872z44d5j
As noted in a tweet from FOX Sports PR, “CM Punk” and “WWE Backstage” trended #1 and #2 worldwide on Twitter following the comeback. The return video had more than 5.5 million video hits across the FOX Sports social media platforms, and counting. With Punk being confirmed for next week, WWE Backstage is likely to receive a significant increase in viewership.
