CM Punk Returning To WWE But Not Really: The Former World Champ To Possibly Appear On “WWE Backstage” Talk Show On FS1

With World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) set to move to FOX on Friday nights starting October 4, 2019, things will be shaking up in a big way.

New rosters for both Raw and Smackdown, with another draft taking place, as well as a new post-show talk show, which is set to air on FOX Sports 1 following Smackdown every Friday night at 11 ET/12 CT.

The show, “WWE Backstage” will be hosted by Renee Young and WWE Hall of Famer, Booker T and will recap the weekly shows in WWE including Monday Night Raw, NXT and Friday Night SmackDown.

Despite Young and Booker T being named the weekly hosts, it should be duly noted that a former world champion recently auditioned for a potential analyst role on the show, and it appears that he may be offered a potential deal very soon.

That former world champion is a man made notoriously famous for walking out on the company 5 years ago, after holding the WWE Championship for 434 days, and being apart of arguably one of the greatest storylines in WWE history when dropped a “pipe bomb” in 2011.

That superstar’s name, is CM Punk.

CM Punk, since leaving WWE in January of 2014, has gone on to compete in Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), going 0-2 in 2 fights against Mickey Gall and Mike “The Truth” Jackson.

The 5-time WWE champ has also dabbled in UFC Broadcasting as well, serving as a color commentator during UFC’s “Cage Fury Fighting” back in 2018, and is looking to bring his talents back over to wrestling, in that exact form.

According to Mike Johnson of PWInsider, Tax, Paige, Rey Mysterio, Sean Waltman (X-Pac) and CM Punk all received looks from FOX executives about being an analyst on the show.

Punk, heavily rumored to be joining All Elite Wrestling (AEW) during the promotion’s “ALL OUT” event at the Sears Centre in Chicago, Illinois on August 31st, seems to be out of that picture, after explaining his current situation at Starrcast III.

Wrestling News Observer’s Dave Meltzer previously reported Punk’s representatives contact WWE about him being on the new FS1 studio show, with the company being hesitant about the possible pairing. Meltzer delved into the situation further this week:

“If CM Punk is to come back to pro wrestling, it looks like it will be [WWE]. He was very political in his speech at the last Starrcast, talking about how he’s grown up, doesn’t have animosity toward WWE and said that if they were to call he would listen. We’d already reported that Punk’s rep had gone to FOX to try and push him to be a co-host of the FS 1 talk show, but WWE wasn’t interested in him for that, even though he’d probably be good at it. Really, him doing that show would only make sense if he’s going to come back to wrestle, because the minute he’s on a WWE broadcast, the people will want him to wrestle again. So hiring him to host the show would immediately make the show about him rather than the news.”

Punk last was scene on WWE television on January 26, 2014 when he competed in the 2014 Royal Rumble match before calling it quits the next night, hours before Monday Night RAW.

To be clear, Punk would be working for FS1 and not WWE. However, it would be the first step of many in possibly rekindling his relationship wit Vince McMahon and company.

If WWE will allow FOX to pull the trigger, adding Punk as an analyst with Renee Young and Booker T will make for great television after SmackDown on Friday nights.