Triple H Reveals How The CM Punk Return Happened, Says WWE Is ‘Thrilled To Have Him Back Home’

CM Punk made his long-awaited return to WWE at the conclusion of the Survivor Series: WarGames 2023 pay-per-view event in Chicago, IL on Saturday night.

During the post-show media scrum, WWE Chief Creative Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque addressed Punk’s surprise return to the company, noting that the initiative actually came from WWE and not TKO Group Holdings.

In fact, the higher-ups at TKO watched WWE Survivor Series: WarGames 2023 without any clue of Punk’s return happening.

You can check out some highlights from the media event below:

On how the CM Punk return happened: “So, this is one of those things…this was one of those sort of lightning-in-a-bottle moments that came together very quickly, but we are incredibly excited about it. It’s been a long time, and in some ways, it’s been a long time coming. You know, you can say this about CM Punk. Love him, hate him, positive, negative, people talk about him, all the time. He’s a magnet for that. He’s a conversation starter. It’s tough to look past that. And for me, if our fans wanted it, if the WWE Universe is excited to have it, then let’s go. And we’ll figure out the rest of it from there. This came together super-quick, which is I’m sure why it stayed stayed tight.”

On the speculation behind Punk’s return: “You know, there’s a lot of at that point. For most of the time, it was nothing but speculation. It didn’t start to come to fruition until everybody stopped thinking it was going to happen, and then, all of the sudden, it was happening. But extremely excited. You know, a lot of time has gone by, almost 10 years, right? And if you are the same person you were 10 years ago, 10 years later, you’ve messed up. Everybody grows. Everybody changes, and I’m a different person. He’s a different person. This is a different company, and we’re all on the same even starting ground.”

On what’s next for CM Punk: “So, what’s next for CM Punk? That’ll be interesting, won’t it? I’m interested to see that myself. I know whatever it is, it will be talked about, it will be exciting, it will be a thrill ride for the WWE Universe no matter what it is, and I’m thrilled–we’re all thrilled to have him back here and to have him — it’s cliched to say — but to have him back home in WWE. It’s where he belongs.”

On if the push for a Punk return was something that came from TKO or TKO CEO Ari Emanuel: “There has been zero push from anybody past the WWE. It’s myself, Nick Khan, to be honest, very few people knew about it past that. You know, it’s a funny thing now. All of a sudden, there’s this mystery entity behind WWE.”

On WWE continuing to do its own thing: “Yeah, we’re doing our thing, and we’re trusted to do what we feel is right for business. I’ll be honest. Probably the top people at TKO were watching the show going, ‘Holy s***!’ It’s a cool thing, right? It’s a crazy, cool time in WWE right now. I think fans can feel that. There’s a lot of energy and excitement, and I’m — man, I’m ready. Let’s run through a wall. You know what I mean? Let’s do it in the biggest way possible. And just keep building on what Vince McMahon made into a global juggernaut for 50 years. And if I have anything to do with it and have any say in it, we’re going to make it bigger than it’s ever been before.”

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