-- CM Punk made a somewhat unexpected return to WWE yesterday at Survivor Series after a tumultuous near-decade long absence. PWInsider has more details on his Punk's return as it played over the few weeks:
- The agreement between WWE and Punk is believed to be "several years in length" according to company sources but despite previous reports, the two sides only began talking to each other over the last week.
- Once the two sides began having conversations, the deal reportedly came together "rather quickly" and from WWE's side, they are looking at it as a "new beginning" of a relationship between Punk and the company. The actual deal wasn't hammered out until sometime yesterday, hours before Survivor Series.
- WWE reportedly gave serious consideration to holding back Punk's return until January's Royal Rumble in Florida but the consensus feeling ended up being that the longer they waited to re-introduce him after signing him to a contract, the more likely it would become that word would spread backstage about their plans, leading to a higher chance that the news would be leaked, ruining the surprise.
- The other consideration was of course that Survivor Series was in Chicago - Punk's hometown - where he was guaranteed to get a huge ovation. After agreeing to terms on a new deal and because Punk lives only 20 minutes from the AllState Arena, the company was able to have him drive to the venue and sneak in at the very last minute for his end-of-show appearance.
- The belief is that while be wrestling for WWE, he probably won't be working a full-time schedule though this has not been confirmed by anyone.
- Speculation has already started that WWE has its eyes on potential matches down the road which would see Punk wrestle the likes of Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Cody Rhodes and possibly even in the long-sought-after dream match against Stone Cold Steve Austin, likely at WrestleMania.
- The locker room dynamic with Punk back in the fold is something that remains to be seen on how it will fold out and is also a situation that AEW will no doubt be looking at with some level of curiosity. If Punk returns to WWE and remains incident free, it would go some distance in silencing his critics who believe he is the source of a lot of backstage tension. However, if his WWE tenure is also riddled with controversies, it would be validation for AEW. Most wrestlers within WWE have already gone on record to state that if and when Punk returned to the promotion, they were ready and willing to "make money" by putting their differences aside in order to work with him.
