During a recent interview, CM Punk acknowledged recent reports that he has indeed tried out for the
WWE Backstage show coming to FOX Spots 1.
"I'm very much in a position where, 'Well, come talk to me,'" he revealed before adding that,
"I'm open to anything. If they come to me with, 'Hey we want you to wrestle,' I'll say, 'um, I'm not interested.'"
As for the bad blood he once had with WWE, Punk said that things have changed for him in the years that have followed. "I've grown so much as a person and I look back at all the stuff and I don't need it. I don't need the confrontation and I don't need the drama," Punk said. "But I'm a businessman. I also put my morals and my integrity above business deals."
Punk went on to say that FOX are looking at trying different things since spending all that money on SmackDown and after talking about WWE's dropping ratings, he revealed that it was the fact the network reached out to him rather than WWE that piqued his interest. "Originally I thought it was a WWE thing, so I was just like, 'meh, no.' But then they said, 'this is FOX.'"
"I'm not dealing with anybody in WWE. They explained to me what it was and I love Renee Young. Renee Young is a great person... she's Canadian, so obviously she's super over-the-top nice and friendly. I prefaced it with, 'Guys, I'm not going to come in and dump all over stuff just to dump on it. That's old Phil. But if it's bad, I'm not going to be able to pretend it's anything but bad.'"
"So they want to present it like it's a real sport and just have a show that recaps stuff, just like they do with the NFL, just like the NHL Network would do with hockey games and stuff like that. That's where we are with that." As for whether he's heard from anyone in WWE, he joked: "No, I'm the boogeyman!"
It's hard to believe WWE is happy with a disgruntled employee weighing in on the product on a show meant to promote Friday Night SmackDown so who knows whether there's any truth to Punk not talking to them. As for him not being interested in wrestling, it remains to be seen whether that's true or if he could return to the company and the world of sports entertainment.