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It's the big news of the week in wrestling so far - CM Punk has returned to WWE! Well, sort out. He appeared during this week's WWE Backstage on FOX and has been announced as making periodic appearances on WWE Backstage going forward.
Naturally the hype around this has been monumental with so much news coming out of it. Seth Rollins and Bray Wyatt have teased physical altercations with him, Renee Young called WWE cowards,
But is there a chance that this WWE Backstage appearance from CM Punk could lead to something more? People have gone to great lengths to specify that Punk has signed a deal with FOX and not WWE and that he absolutely isn't returning to the ring. That might be true for now, but come on! This is wrestling.
So, what could WWE be planning for CM Punk?
#3 WWE could reform Nexus
One of CM Punk's more memorable storylines was his involvement with Nexus when he ousted former leader Wade Barrett to take over leadership of the group of rebellious and destruction former NXT stars.
It was Punk's leadership of the New Nexus that led to his most iconic WWE moment - the now infamous Pipe Bomb, which many consider to be one of Punk's and WWE's best moments as a whole.
So, it would be an obvious move for WWE to make given that Punk is now just a hairs-width away in-ring competition for them again. But how likely is it?
Well, Survivor Series is not too far away and this year there's a twist - it's not just RAW vs SmackDown, it's now RAW vs SmackDown vs NXT. We've already seen NXT Superstars invading both shows with the leader seemingly being Adam Cole (as he's NXT Champion).
But what if the leader of the NXT invasions was actually someone who has history of leading a group of NXT stars against main roster competition - CM Punk.
#2 CM Punk could shake up the women's division
While it's easy to get ahead of ourselves and start fantasy booking all of these matches for CM Punk in WWE now and how they could make his in-ring return a surprise or a big moment, there's every chance that he's sincere when he says he has no intentions of returning to the ring.
That doesn't mean that Punk can't have a major impact on the WWE landscape and he has just the thing that could do it - the return of his wife AJ Lee.
Lee was rumoured to be returning for WWE's first all-female pay-per-view Evolution. She resoundingly won a poll from WWE fans on who they wanted to return for the show and it was speculated that Vince McMahon himself had reached out to her to ask her to return.
Now that Punk's, once thought irreparable, relationship with WWE has been tentatively repaired this could be the perfect time for AJ Lee to return to the WWE Women's Division and pick off where her legacy started.
#1 CM Punk joins the Authority
With all of the NXT vs Main Roster stuff going on it seems obvious that CM Punk would align himself with the yellow brand given his previous disposition of leading NXT stars against the main roster.
But what if WWE shocked everyone by introducing a new facet of CM Punk, corporate Punk, and had him align with Vince McMahon and Stephanie McMahon to help keep Triple H's NXT Superstars in their place.
It would be a shocking moment to see the NXT Men's team on the verge of defeating the SmackDown and RAW teams when CM Punk makes his return, in his hometown of Chicago, and in a major swerve, costs them the match.
This also works in a way because it doesn't have to mean that Punk is returning to the ring, he could just be an onscreen figure who appears every now and then to do the McMahon's bidding.
