WWE Hall of Famer and former WCW President Eric Bischoff took to an episode of his Strictly Business podcast, where he talked about a number of topics including CM Punk’s recent return to the WWE and how this is something the pro wrestling industry has been waiting for since Punk left AEW.
Bischoff said, “CM Punk showing up in WWE, clearly there’s what, a decade’s worth of story there? His role in WWE, the way he left, the Pipebomb Promo, which by the way, I found out subsequently was actually written for him, but the story is there. There’s been this anticipation that’s been brewing since the minute he left AEW. ‘Oh is he gonna come back?’ ‘Yes he is.’ ‘No, he isn’t.’ The anticipation has been there, almost instantly. It didn’t have to be created or manufactured. The reality is the authenticity of it all. All of the stuff that we’ve been reading about for 18 months with regard to Punk and AEW and the drama with The Elite, the press conference, that’s all real. That isn’t a storyline. These are all things that happened. It’s authentic. It’s not a manufactured story. So you’ve got great story, history, backstory. You’ve got anticipation that was built in from the moment the news broke that Punk was being let go. The authenticity can’t be doubted. The surprise was pulled off perfectly, and now we have action coming up next. That’s the easy part of wrestling. The action is the easy part. The story’s the hard part. Creating anticipation is a challenge. Keeping it real and authentic is also a big challenge, especially in the world of professional wrestling. Surprises are few and far between, authentic ones, ones that really catch people by surprise and you get the response that you hope for, which clearly happened at Survivor Series. All that’s left now is where does he go? What’s the action like? I don’t think there’s any question we’re going to see great action. Especially because there’s a great story, and there’s a lot of anticipation for who he’s going to work with and what that storyline is gonna look like. I think Punk coming in at Survivor Series knocked it completely out of the park, which indicates to me that this is going be a very, very successful, long-term financially successful decision, provided that the wheels don’t fall off because of personal issues.”
Bishoff also talked about how he believes Punk will be very successful in his second run with WWE.
Bischoff said, “I’m pretty sure Punk is going to…provided he wants to, motivation is the core of this, right? If Punk woke up and said, ‘Look, I want to have one more really, really good run,’ and if he’s willing to be a team player, I think he’s going to be very successful in WWE. He’s not going to be able to get away with the same kind of silliness, nor will he be exposed to the same kind of backstage environment that he was exposed to in AEW. He’s going to have to learn to deal with a more corporate, structured environment. If he’s willing, if his intentions are such that he really wants to make this work and be a team player, I think his second run will be better than his first in WWE.”
You can check out the complete podcast below.
(H/T to Fightful for transcribing the above quotes)
