We're closing in on a year since CM Punk returned to WWE at Survivor Series: WarGames in Chicago. Even after his AEW departure, we never expected the Best in the World to step into a WWE ring but he's been riding high ever since.
Despite an unfortunate injury, Punk's WWE run has been a huge success and he's run into none of the issues he faced in AEW.
Now, his friend and former manager Paul Heyman has told Notsam Wrestling that he's pleased to see Punk get his flowers after going through "hell" elsewhere (we're pretty sure you'll be able to figure out what he's referring to).
"CM Punk is back where he belongs, and that's on top in WWE, and like any other rebel, it's the old song, you have to go through hell before you get to heaven," the Wiseman said. "And CM Punk the struggle is real, and he is a rebel, to this day he is a rebel, but the rebel would never reach the top."
"The rebel will never get his due on his own merit if he doesn't go through pure, blatant, bloody, hell and that hell could not only be in WWE, he had to go through hell elsewhere as well, and everybody had to see it and hear about it and know about it," Heyman added.
In a separate conversation with Busted Open Radio, Punk himself alluded to the issues he faced in AEW when he praised the camaraderie of the WWE locker room.
"[I missed] the boys, hanging out in the locker room," he explained. "There's people you see at work who are work acquaintances and when you're not at work, you don't see 'em. It's hard to keep in touch with everybody, so just kinda reconnecting with people, seeing a lot of people I haven't seen in 10 years is a real treat."
Punk elaborated on that point in a conversation with The Masked Man Show when he singled out the current WWE roster as the thing he enjoys most about being back in the company he walked out of in 2014.
"I'm grateful because of the embarrassment of riches I'm surrounded with," Punk enthused. "I don't think a roster has been as strong as it is. Cody [Rhodes is] killing it. Jade [Cargill is] killing it. We have Damian Priest coming into his own. I'm going to get in trouble for forgetting to mention some certain people."
"The main event is super crowded and there's so many segments on every single television show that you're excited to wait and watch and see what happens," the Second City Saint added, praising the current quality of WWE programming.
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