CM Punk Claims His AEW Debut Was Designed To Be ‘The Worst Kept Secret’

After seven years, CM Punk made his triumphant return to the pro wrestling business as made a thunderous debut at AEW Rampage The First Dance. CM Punk is expected to do a lot more than just wrestle in the ring.

Long before Punk made his debut, there were several teases regarding his impending debut shown during episodes of AEW Dynamite and more.

Ringside News was able to first exclusively report that CM Punk signed a contract with AEW on July 23rd and the deal was said to have come together in a hurry. 

While speaking during a media scrum after the conclusion of AEW Rampage: The First dance, CM Punk was asked how difficult it was for him to keep his return a secret. Punk claimed that his AEW debut was designed to be the worst kept secret, and had a good reason for it.

So, again, now this kind of goes back to one of the appealing things about AEW for me, and it’s a bit of a bummer of a topic; Brodie Lee passes away. Right. Come to find out that he was sick, but nobody knew. Nobody said anything to anybody, because they knew Brodie, they loved Brodie. So, seeing that I was like, I mean there’s something about that, you know, like, if that was anywhere else, it’d be all over the internet. His poor wife would have to be dealing with that on top of already dealing with this tragic event.

We also don’t want to beat you over the head with it and lie. You know, I didn’t have them construct some fugazi pipe and drape and drive me in the United Center and hide me from everybody. I walked in here like a human being, and I was like, ‘hey everybody,’ meeting people walking through the hallway because I just think these people, again, nobody’s back here standing on their own dick. Everybody’s getting out of their own way. Just let stuff happen and having fun. Behind the camera and in front of the camera, people just having fun, and they just want to be a part of it, that’s it. So nobody’s trying to, you know, tweet and spoil stuff. Let’s just all have fun.

So I think a lot of people back here were in on it. They knew I was going to be here but they weren’t sure, and man isn’t that fun? Isn’t that fun? Worst kept secret designed that way for a reason. You can criticize and say well, ‘they should advertise, maybe the ratings will be better.’ It’s about the moments. It’s about the moments and making people go ‘oh man, I can’t miss the show I don’t know what’s going to happen. This is fun and I want to be a part of.'”

CM Punk is already set to square off against Darby Allin at the AEW All Out Pay-Per-View on September 5. We will have to wait and see how CM Punk will fare in his new home. Punk will also be on AEW Dynamite next week for his first appearance on the show, but it certainly won’t be his last.

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h/t to Fightful for the quotes