CM Punk recently spoke to Sports Illustrated about a variety of topics, and the subject of a possible WWE return obviously came up. The former WWE Champion can't do an interview without being about his in-ring future despite the fact it's now been over seven years since he last competed.
Punk has seemed more open to the prospect in recent years, of course, but it doesn't sound like WWE is an option for him. "I’ve said no before in interviews. I’m not fishing for a deal. I get offered to do a lot of stuff, and I say no to 90% of it just because my thing is I need to work with quality human beings. It just seems like maybe in pro wrestling there is a lack of quality human beings."
"I don’t know. I like doing fun, quality projects. If there is a fun, quality wrestling project that gets sent my way, I will listen to it," the one-time Best in the World continued. "I don’t need the money. And the way the wrestling business is now, it’s wacky. You’ve got WWE, who has multiple billion-dollar television deals, and the television’s awful. I go back there, I’m just another guy."
"And it’s not even that—I’d be just another guy that’s doing not-good television. I want to do stuff that’s good. I want my name attached to quality projects, where it’s fun and it makes people laugh, smile, think and people don’t hate watching it. I want to do fun stuff," Punk concluded.
WWE television isn't great these days, so no one can blame Punk for not wanting to return and be part of a show like RAW that is heavily criticised as being unwatchable most weeks. Whether he feels the same about All Elite Wrestling is unclear, but he hasn't signed a deal with Tony Khan as of yet, anyway!