CM Punk Appears With Shawn Michaels At WWE NXT Deadline
CM Punk made an unannounced appearance at WWE NXT Deadline when he joined Shawn Michaels in the ring at the start of the show.
The WWE NXT brand is all about the future of WWE, but two legendary stars decided to open up the NXT Deadline broadcast from Bridgeport, CT.
Since CM Punk was in Providence, RI on Friday for SmackDown, he was fairly close to where Deadline was taking place. CM Punk posted on his Instagram story that he missed his flight home after SmackDown and he was in Bridgeport, which is where Deadline was taking place. Punk also posted a photo from WWE Headquarters in Stamford, CT as well while Michaels invited Punk to visit the NXT Deadline event.
Shawn Michaels is a two-time WWE Hall of Famer who’s considered one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. In his current role, he is WWE’s Senior Vice President of Talent Development Creative, which means he runs the NXT brand behind the scenes and creatively.
At Deadline, Michaels welcomed fans to the show doing the classic D-Generation X “Are You Ready?” bit when CM Punk’s music hit and Punk walked out there in a pink Bret Hart sweatshirt.
When CM Punk got into the ring, the fans cheered the two former WWE Champions who are among the most popular stars in company history. Punk went up to Shawn saying look at them together in this ring. Michaels mentioned Punk’s Bret Hart shirt and Punk joked that he left his HBK merch at home. Punk said Shawn and Bret made up just like Punk made up with Triple H!
Punk said that he was backstage and quite a few people went up to him saying they grew up watching him, so Punk took selfies with them. Punk said that he grew up watching Shawn, so Punk took a selfie with Michaels as well.
CM Punk Set To Make Big Decision On WWE Raw
As the promo continued, Punk spoke about how he missed a flight today so he came to talk to Shawn in person instead of a phone call. The reason for that is in WWE storylines, CM Punk is a free agent who has to decide what brand to sign with: Raw, SmackDown or NXT.
“The big question is that, is CM Punk going to be on SmackDown? Is CM Punk going to be on Raw? Or is the newest NXT Superstar named…[crowd chants CM Punk].”
You just never know what may happen… 🤔#NXTDeadlinepic.twitter.com/7GEyU7p7zA
— WWE (@WWE) December 10, 2023
Punk had a line about forgetting their lines too, so that may have legit happened because the segment just ended in a way that wasn’t very smooth. They played CM Punk’s music to end it and Punk hugged Michaels. The opening video package aired after that.
As for what’s next, CM Punk will be on WWE Monday Night Raw in Cleveland, which is the city where he walked out of WWE in January 2014. On this visit to Raw, Punk is expected to choose between Raw, SmackDown or even NXT as his future home in WWE.