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CM Punk made his official return to WWE Monday Night Raw last night and PWInsider.com has received a lot of questions about his promo on the show as well as how he was received backstage for his first night with the company after his surprise return at Survivor Series, the same day he came to terms to return.
As far as the promo, we are told that the initial plan was for a longer promo that would have given Punk more time, but timing issues led to the Randy Orton vs. Dominik Mysterio match to go longer than initially planned, so Punk's time was cut. This is something that regularly happens on live WWE TV. So, it was a more abbreviated promo than initially planned.
For fans who expected Punk to go all insane on AEW or Tony Khan, that was never going to happen. The story is Punk's return back to WWE after nearly a decade, not the last place he wrestled. For those who asked if the line about Punk being here to make money, not friends was a shot at AEW, it certainly could have been, but no one we spoke to could say that for sure.
Punk mentioned his wife, April aka AJ Lee during his promo. Right now there has been no discussion of her coming in. She retired years ago for health reasons and has carved out a successful writing career for herself, but one has to think that a cameo appearance or so down the line wouldn't be out of the question, especially since there are so many talents in the company today who have praised her work as influencing their careers.
Backstage, there were a lot of talents waiting to see which CM Punk showed up and for those expecting the grumpy Punk, well, that one didn't appear. Punk was out and about with everyone else in the locker room and spent time talking to a lot of people before the show. He wasn't sequestered away or anything like that. We were told that Punk came in as if he wasn't above anyone else and was friendly to everyone who interacted with him. Punk was described to PWInsider as seeming to be "happy to be there." There was a hope among some that would remain the case.
One source who spoke with him relayed to PWInsider there was "no sign of the version of the person who we'd hear was so miserable in AEW." A few people who weren't thrilled Punk was back noted that after talking with him, they felt better about Punk returning. So, it was a good first night back in that regard.
Punk is not currently scheduled for Smackdown this Friday in Brooklyn, NY.
Punk has not been assigned officially to any roster internally.
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