CM Punk Makes Shocking Return to WWE At Survivor Series

It happened. It actually happened. A door that had been long closed was kicked open Saturday night as CM Punk made a shocking return to WWE at the end of Survivor Series in his hometown of Chicago.

The final match of the night featured Cody Rhodes, Seth Rollins, Jey Uso, Sami Zayn and Randy Orton defeating The Judgement Day -- Damian Priest, Finn Balor, Dominik Mysterio and JD McDonagh -- and Drew McIntyre in a WarGames match. As the winners celebrated in the ring, the opening bars of "Cult of Personality" hit and the crowd went absolutely wild. Then, moments later Punk slowly emerged from the back.

Check it out:

No matter what you think of CM Punk, that's one hell of a moment.

Punk left WWE in 2014, claiming he was tired and burnt out. He tried MMA in a brief, two-fight stint in UFC. It didn't go well as he was utterly dominated in both matches and went 0-2. He did some acting, worked on Fox's WWE Backstage, then finally made his return to pro wrestling with AEW in 2021. That began a rocky tenure. He won the AEW World Championship, but a post pay-per-view locker room brawl with Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks at All Out in 2022 led to a lengthy suspension. When he returned in 2023, it didn't take long until he got into another fight, this time with Jack Perry backstage, at All In. That led to the termination of his contract with AEW.

Speculation had flown that Punk would return to WWE but it was shot down from all corners. That makes his return all the more surprising. It'll be fascinating how he's used.

UPDATE: WWE chief content officer Triple H talking about Punk's return: