Promotion owner who lost to AEW in signing CM Punk speaks out after four years

CM Punk made his AEW debut back in 2021, but he could have returned to wrestling sooner. According to House of Glory's Brian XL, the promotion had planned to bring Punk in 2019.

The Second City Saint ended up returning to the industry after seven years when he made his AEW debut during Rampage First Dance. However, many anticipated his return to the sport years earlier, and it seems like smaller promotions like HOG wanted to secure him into a deal.

During his recent appearance on The Jobber Tears Podcast, Brian XL recalled the conversations he had with Master P to sign The Second City Saint back in 2019.

"We had a meeting with Master P and one of the first things I told him, I said, ‘We gotta go get CM Punk.’ I said, ‘Let me tell you something, this dude right now is not signed to nobody and it’s like Michael Jordan being in his prime and leaving basketball.’ I said, ‘That’s Michael Jordan right now in the wrestling world. People wanna see that man.’"

However, according to Brian, Master P misrepresented Punk after name-dropping him publicly.

"I spoke to Mike Johnson from PWInsider and that’s my dude. He’s like, ‘Yo B, look, this is the truth’. I knew that CM Punk, people really wanted to see this guy, you know what I mean? And when AEW did that [brought Punk in], I’m like, ‘This is a good thing.’" (H/T: POSTWrestling).

Fans recently went wild with speculation when Shinsuke Nakamura hit an almost GTS-like move on WWE television, and Cory Graves referenced CM Punk. However, according to Fightful, these were not references but actually jabs at the star instead.

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Dutch Mantell believes that CM Punk will ultimately return to WWE

Multiple reports last week claimed that whatever talks the Stamford-based promotion had with Punk ended up falling through. While fans were quick to dismiss the claims, Dutch Mantell thinks that if it doesn't happen now, it will happen eventually.

During a recent episode of Storytime with Dutch Mantell, the WWE veteran explained that he believes that The Second City Saint has one more run in the promotion.

"I predicted he'd go. He's not gonna go. But, I am gonna go on record by saying - I think we will see him within a year and a half. Because I think he has one final run in WWE;hthat they can make special. And if they got around him and he wants to go out on top, this is the last match ever." [19: 20 onward]

It remains to be seen if CM Punk will return to WWE or pro wrestling as a whole, but based solely on the social media outcry, there is at least some push from the Internet Wrestling Community to see him back in action.