WWE Reportedly Declines Opportunity to Reengage with CM Punk

Ever since his contentious departure from AEW and backstage skirmish with Jack Perry at All In London, CM Punk has remained a hot topic among wrestling fans. Speculation has often centered on the possibility of him making a surprising return to WWE, particularly given the manner of his initial departure in 2014.

On a recent episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer verified that WWE has indeed declined the opportunity to work with CM Punk for the time being, though the door isn't completely shut for future collaboration:

"They [WWE] turned him down. He wanted to go there and the decision was a no. It can always change and it was brought up to me that look there’s no such thing as no forever when it comes to WWE but it’s no for now. That was the decision that was made. It’s Vince’s decision, Vince, Nick Khan, Paul Levesque, and obviously, they decided the negatives outweigh the positives and you can’t argue with that.

“There were negatives, there were positives, there were past dealings. It was a different situation from last time. If you remember there were two other opportunities, one where FOX pressured them to take him and Vince said anyone else but him, no. And the second time which was about 10 months ago they were talking again but he was under contract to AEW and I was told that would be a no but it’s easy to say no if there’s no chance they could get him because of the contract.

“This time they could but they decided to pass. […] It can always change, it was made clear to me – if WWE’s business went down that’s a card they could play but is it worth it? How bad is their business gonna go down really? Even if this hot streak as far as live events cools off – and I guess it will eventually, that’s just the reality of wrestling, there’s always ups and downs – but even if it does, how much are they really gonna be hurting? Their profit margins are ridiculous, who needs the headaches? I’m sure that’s the way they looked at it.”

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