WWE ended its lengthy European tour in London yesterday evening with what proved to be one of the best episodes of RAW in recent memory.
Highlights included a blistering war of words between Cody Rhodes and John Cena, Gunther covering himself in Jimmy Uso's blood, and a fun main event which saw Rhea Ripley end the night standing tall over Women's World Champion Iyo Sky and Bianca Belair.
However, fans in the O2 Arena were treated to an extra surprise once the cameras stopped rolling as CM Punk squared off with Ludwig Kaiser in singles action.
The Best in the World defeated the Imperium member in a fun bout not meant to be anything too intense before Punk headlines this year's WrestleMania in a Triple Threat match with Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins. Ultimately, he picked up the 1-2-3 with the GTS.
After the bell rang, Punk addressed the crowd and acknowledged that neither he nor they likely expected to see him back in a WWE ring in London. Adding that there's a lot of craziness going on in the world right now, he said that "this pro wrestling sh*t is universal" and hyped up his WrestleMania main event.
Punk then wrapped up the night with a Queen sing-along. Devoting the song to his wife AJ Lee (AJ Mendez), "Fat Bottomed Girls" played through the arena after he vowed to return home to her and their dog, Larry.
The Second City Saint also got fans hyped with a "Let's f***ing go" after pointing out that they can swear now. You can watch a clip of what happened in the X post below.
During a recent interview with Rich Eisen, Punk reflected on helping bring Reigns and Rollins into WWE and ended by making it clear that, after playing a pivotal role in the debut, he may very well be the one who takes them out on the Grandest Stage of Them All.
"I’ll give a bit of an uncharacteristic answer. I think everybody’s always trying to navigate, like, 'How do you deal with media different from what we present on our television show?' In 2012, I was the WWE Champion. I was on this what, at the time, was a historic run with the belt. Four hundred thirty-four days, obviously shattered by Roman Reigns since I’ve been gone, and what I needed was guys to work with."
"I was always looking towards the future. Yeah, there’s the now, there’s me, and there’s Cena. But outside of that, I would look at the landscape and be like, ‘What do we need to do to get money-talent in the position that I’m in now? How do I bring guys up? How do we elevate Superstars?’ So the idea with The Shield was that simple. I need guys to work with, for good or for bad, whether I like them, whether I hate them, whether I’m going to wind up having personal problems with them. I need talented individuals to work with, or I have nobody to work with in the future."
"Lo and behold, who am I working with at WrestleMania? So, life’s pretty funny the way things kind of work out. I just don’t want those two guys to forget that they were picked for a reason. I brought them into this and at WrestleMania. I get the chance to take them out."