As you have undoubtedly heard by now unless you’ve completely sealed yourself off from social media and any outlet that would ever write about pro wrestling for the last 48 hours, CM Punk is back in WWE. A day many figured would never come is now a reality, and his Survivor Series return has the wrestling world buzzing.
Of course, Punk was a hot topic of conversation even when he was in-between gigs, so to speak, during the time between his firing from AEW in September and this past weekend in Chicago. One popular theory was even wilder in some ways than a WWE comeback: that he was the person who would eventually be revealed to be under the Devil mask in AEW.
While fanciful on the surface, Punk played into it on social media as well, which only caused speculation to intensify — apparently to the point where even WWE wrestlers were pondering the possibility.
In its latest update on all things Punk, Fightful Select (subscription required) says that while an AEW reunion was never in the cards, WWE talent was asking about it.
There were top WWE talent asking some in AEW if Punk was involved in the AEW devil storyline as recently as the last month or so. Punk was never discussed for that.
While some are piling on Tony Khan for firing Punk and setting into motion the chain of events that led to his WWE return, the guess is that he’d be under much more intense criticism for rehiring someone he fired “for cause” and then using him in the AEW Devil storyline. The industry is almost certainly better off not knowing what would have happened had that come to pass, and at least for now, everyone involved seems better off than they were a few months ago.
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