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WWE appears to have never really had a chance to be the place CM Punk returned to in pro wrestling.
Punk debuted in All Elite Wrestling on Aug. 20 at the United Center in Chicago on “AEW Rampage” after leaving WWE and the industry in 2014. The three-time WWE heavyweight champion’s exit did not come on good terms, as he walked out shortly after the Royal Rumble citing burn out, injury, sickness and unhappiness with his creative direction.
Punk has said he took a wait-and-see approach before deciding to jump back into the pro wrestling waters to make sure he was ready and the situation was right. Ultimately he was impressed with AEW’s young talent, how much fun it looked like people were having and the scene of true family in its locker room. When asked if the bar to clear as far as his comfort level — given his history in WWE — would have been higher to get him back in the fold there, Punk didn’t seem to have entertained the thought.
“I’m not sure it was ever really an option to go back there,” Punk said while promoting his return match against Darby Allin at the “All Out” pay-per-view on Sunday (8 p.m., Bleacher Report). “There was so much history there, so much baggage.”
He went on to explain that’s why AEW was so appealing to him because he’s such a fan of what they are doing overall, even if he does not always like everything. He’s trying to keep an opening mind after seeing past wrestlers in his position who would just “dismiss everything they didn’t understand instead of trying to help” and accept “this is what the kids are into.”
“I’ll take Orange Cassidy for an example,” Punk said. “It doesn’t matter if I get it or not. I’m 42 years old. I know when he goes out there and does his thing the crowd loves it. Who am I to judge? And instead of trying to squash that I would much rather be the guy that goes, ‘yeah OK, I guess that’s the part of me that’s out of touch.’ But you know what, listen to that crowd. Go do your thing. Let’s embrace that instead of being the guy who’s gonna be like, ah well Gene Kiniski wouldn’t have done that, so we’re not going in that direction or you’re fired or whatever.
“I just want to embrace the youthful exuberance. Sting and everybody did.”
Sting, one of the biggest legends in the industry, shared a memorable moment on screen with Cassidy on “Dynamite” in July where he took and reciprocated in the sloth-like wrestler’s slow-motion shin-kick routine. Punk will finally get his chance to work with Sting, 62, in some capacity as the icon will be in Allin’s corner for their match this weekend.
Sting and Punk missed each other by a little more than eight months in WWE, and the Chicago native calls it a “happy accident” and a “pleasant surprise” the two are finally in a program together, They shared a moment the day Punk debuted in AEW.
“I don’t like peeling back the curtain too much, he found me in the bowels of the United Center and he came up to me,” Punk said. “I had met Sting briefly and I told him. He’s like, ‘Really I’m sorry I don’t remember.’ It was Eddie Guerrero’s funeral so it wasn’t the happiest of circumstances.”
Punk said he could tell from the conversation that Sting was excited about being in AEW and happy to be in the mix regularly on TV. Sting has also wrestled three matches since joining the company last December, including his first on TNT since the final “WCW Monday Nitro” in 2001.
“He’s not just a happy to be their guy,” Punk said. “He’s just so into it. And after the promo [on Rampage], he’s up in the rafters, we talked.
“He just has this twinkle in his eye. He’s excited about it.”
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