CM Punk reveals why he chose AEW over WWE in 2021

When news broke that CM Punk was returning to WWE after an AEW run filled with the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, it got fans excited in a way few other talent announcements have in years.

With Cody Rhodes on top, The Bloodline running wild, and the promotion on a hot streak of sold-out shows and record-breaking gates, the addition of Punk gave fans another major win to celebrate in the war against Tony Khan and company, even if AEW will forever boast the return of the “Second City Saint” to professional wrestling.

But why did Punk choose AEW over WWE when he theoretically could have worked for either? Well, Punk broke that down in a pre-Mania interview with The Ringer, noting how his eventual run with WWE came into existence and why he chose to return to AEW first.

“I had a conversation with Triple H on Thanksgiving. Immediately, I was like, ‘This dude is taking time away from his daughters and wife and turkey to talk to me.’ It’s not a thing where they need this big superstar. They didn’t need to sign me. They were doing fine.

“I just think he, in a way, recognized that this is the right thing to do. Where prior administrations would look at stuff and go, ‘Nope, this is the way we’re doing it because I said so.’ Yeah, but if you did it this way, it’s going to benefit this many more people,'” Punk noted via Fightful.

“My big thing about part-timers back in the day was, they can come back and main event, I understand The Rock is box office compared to CM Punk in 2013. I understand that, but at some point, if you don’t hand the baton to somebody else, Rock is not going to come back, and now there is nobody at that level.

“That’s kind of how I always viewed the business, and I think me and Triple H always butt heads because we were too similar back then. We’ve grown, and now I love working with the guy; it’s great. I don’t say for him, either, because I don’t feel like I work for this guy.

“I feel like I come to work, and it’s more collaborative than anything it’s ever been, and I couldn’t have seen that until I was actually in; I kind of took a gamble. Whereas in 2021, when I came back, I went with the devil I didn’t know instead of the devil I knew.”

Now granted, in 2021, WWE was a very different place, with the promotion struggling to get much going in the way of sustained hype and momentum under Vince McMahon. When Paul “Triple H” Levesque took over, however, the perception of the promotion changed considerably, with fans becoming intrigued by the promotion’s new direction.

Had Levesque been in power in 2021, who knows, maybe Punk would have returned there instead, but after showing he can still draw and work in AEW, his spot on the roster became more of a sure thing.