CM Punk On Who Helped Him Get Back Into Wrestling

CM Punk has revealed who he says is to blame for getting him hooked on wrestling once again after he returned to the ring after a seven-year absence. This person is a good friend of Punk’s going back to their WWE days.

When Punk walked out of WWE in early 2014 it looked as if Punk had turned his back on professional wrestling for good. A stint in the world of UFC followed as well as a sojourn into the movies as an actor. Punk has also done commentary work for MMA events.

At AEW Rampage: The First Dance on the 20th of August, the worst kept secret in pro wrestling was revealed as CM Punk made his AEW debut in front of a sell-out, raucous, hometown Chicago crowd. During his appearance he addressed his long absence and what attracted him to AEW, singling out the young, hungry talent in the AEW locker room. That then brought him to Darby Allin and Punk will face the former TNT Champion at All Out.

In the post-show media scrum with CM Punk and AEW President Tony Khan, Punk laid the blame for reigniting his passion for wrestling at a former colleague’s door:

“Nobody has to prove anything to me. You know what I mean? Like, it wasn’t about them having to prove anything to me. It was about me being open to the idea. And then it wasn’t going to be well, I’m just gonna jump in the pool right away. Now it was I had to dip my toe and you know what I mean, and see how things are going to be?”

“Actually this is all Renee Paquette’s fault. Honestly, this is, this is all her fault. She’s the one who got me to come back to do the [WWE] Backstage thing. And it opened my eyes to like, and, okay, this is fun. She’s a good person. I like working with good people. And that’s really all it was like, nobody had to prove anything to me. But I did take a wait and see approach. And I wait and I saw and I saw, you know, I like what I saw.”

Punk and Paquette worked together on the WWE Backstage show where they discussed the going ons in WWE. Paquette is married to AEW’s Jon Moxley with Renee recently giving birth to the couple’s first child, a daughter.

During the call Punk also named his dream AEW opponents during the call, while another star has wasted no time in battering down the ‘forbidden door’ as he challenged CM Punk.