As unbelievable as it might’ve sounded just a few years ago, despite the star power he has, CM Punk more or less made himself unemployable in the pro wrestling industry. If the UFC contract and AEW deal proved anything, Punk isn’t going to lace up the boots for peanuts. He’s not going back to the local flea market for the love of the game. New Japan might be able to afford him for a one-off match, but as far as realistic options in sports entertainment, Punk can work for AEW or WWE. For years, the narrative was that Punk tried to fight against the corporate machine for the prosperity of pro wrestling. WWE wasn’t the place for him because it was essentially too political and too corporate. After a failed, but lucrative attempt in the UFC, Punk made his long-awaited return to the sport for All Elite Wrestling, an organization, both for some positive and negatives, is vastly different than the WWE presentation. Punk made it a year, a quarter of that time he spent injured, before he publicly buried the company. When the spotlight was on him, he didn’t complain much, but the common denominator in both situations is that Punk was difficult to deal with. At some point, CM Punk isn’t worth the hassle, and that’s probably why there won’t be a WWE return.
