CM Punk has given an insight into his mindset ahead of his epic return to wrestling in August 2021.
Despite the fact that Punk was not explicitly announced to appear at the August 20th Rampage taping in Chicago, the United Center in Chicago was packed for the show and loud CM Punk chants rang through the arena as soon as the show went on the air anticipating his arrival. In what was the worst-kept secret of the year, the opening bars of Cult of Personality by Living Colour confirmed what many anticipated for the past few weeks.
Despite the fact that the return was one of the biggest in the modern era given that Punk had been away from the ring for 7 years and had shown no interest in returning, the Chicago native admitted that there were some mental struggles heading into that moment.
While appearing on O’Shea Jackson Jr. and T.J. Jefferson’s No-Contest Wrestling podcast, Punk stated that as he had not been in that kind of environment for so long and given how he left WWE there was a concern as to whether or not the fans would care:
“So, most people who do live television, I haven’t really experienced it doing TV and movies because you can just do another take. You can kind of just step out and go out, ‘I need a minute.’ This and that. So there is pressure to that but there’s not pressure like live television, live sports.
I don’t know what it’s like to play game seven of the Stanley Cup Final, home game and be down there for the face-off and the puck drops. I don’t know what that experience is like. I think I could maybe draw some parallels to things that I’ve done in my career. But yeah, coming back, there’s a level of imposter syndrome that I think I’ve always dealt with.
Because as much as I’ve always been that guy that shuts out all the negative voices, those voices are still there. After not doing something for seven years and famously having this very public, ugly breakup with the company and not doing anything for seven years, it’s just like the thought is, are people gonna care? Are they gonna remember me?”
Continuing, Punk added that while there clearly was support given the strong ticket sales for the event he was only rumoured to appear at, there always is that shred of doubt. Punk also stated that he experienced a similar range of emotions ahead of his Survivor Series return:
“Now you also have a pretty good idea that yeah, you know what? I just sold out the house that Michael Jordan built on a rumour. I’m pretty sure they’re not here to throw tomatoes at me. But there’s still always that little bit of doubt, and people wanna talk about, ‘If you could bottle that adrenaline and feeling of your highest high.’ I thrive in being uncomfortable, and in that moment I was so uncomfortable because I was so uncertain and I loved it.
I wanted to sit there and just be like, yeah, this is great. I’ve never felt more alive. Because I’ve had low lows where I’m just like, ‘Ugh. Wish it was all over with,’ and I’ve had high highs where I’m like, ‘I never want this to end’ but there’s that middle part that I’ve experienced a couple of times fortunately, because I went through the same thing when I came back at Survivor Series to WWE. But man, that uncertainty. But then looking around me and seeing all these people, my peers, my colleagues on their phones filming it.”
CM Punk Details Contract Negotiations
Although fans were pretty certain that Punk would be making his return to wrestling at AEW Rampage, the same could not be said for his WWE return at Survivor Series given the circumstances of his AEW release. During the same interview, CM Punk further elaborated on the negotiations and how close they came to falling through.
Also in the interview, CM Punk revealed why he uses an updated version of Cult of Personality.
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