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CM Punk made a surprise debut on WWE Backstage on FS1 on November 12th, 2019 and he expectedly broke the Internet that day. The Straight Edge Superstar returned to WWE programming for the first time since his unceremonious departure, and the fans hoped that his new talk show role would lead to an eventual in-ring comeback. The WWE Universe is still waiting and it seems like Punk doesn't want to wrestle anymore.
WWE management, however, has tried their best to convince the Cult of Personality to lace up his wrestling boots again. As revealed by Tom Colohue to Korey Gunz on Sportskeeda's Dropkick DiSKussions podcast, CM Punk was the first-choice WrestleMania 36 opponent that the officials had in mind for Seth Rollins.
WWE was serious about making the match happen and they even tried to tempt the former World Champion into accepting the offer to compete in a dream clash against Rollins.
Punk, unfortunately, didn't budge on the proposal.
Here's what Tom revealed:
The first choice match for Seth Rollins coming into WrestleMania was CM Punk. They wanted to do that match. They wanted to make that match happen. CM Punk was not that interested and they tried a lot to tempt him in.
Seth Rollins has been openly lobbying for a match against Punk ever since 'The Voice of the Voiceless' assumed his new job as an analyst on WWE Backstage.
Punk revealed during his appearance on 'Swings & Mrs. With Cody and Jennifer Decker' that he would consider returning to wrestling if the money was right and if it was against any of these four popular wrestlers. Punk not mentioning Rollins caught the attention of the WWE fans, who have keenly been keeping track of the back-and-forth between the two Superstars.
Rollins vs. Punk is bound to be a classic match-up if it were to get booked, and it would have been a spectacle to see it happen at WrestleMania 36. Even RAW's Executive Director Paul Heyman would have loved to see his former client go up against the Monday Night Messiah at the Show of Shows.
The situation has changed drastically though as 'Mania is set to happen inside the empty WWE Performance Center, and the fans would rather like the company to save Punk's return - if it were to happen - for an event after the coronavirus pandemic is brought under control.
