– Earlier today, WWE aired the second part of an interview with Paul “Triple H” Levesque” and Megan Morant during the Countdown to WrestleMania 40. During the interview, Triple H revealed how the return of CM Punk came together to have Punk return to WWE last November during the Survivor Series: WarGames event. Below are some highlights (via Fightful):
Triple H on Nick Khan asking if him if he could have talks with CM Punk: “Funny. If you had asked me a few weeks prior to that…there were rumors and all that stuff, but we had zero communication at that point. As we got closer to the event, there was a couple of conversations that happened between Punk and Nick Khan. Nick said to me, ‘Would you be opposed to me having a conversation and seeing where it goes?’ I said, ‘No. I have no issues there. My concern is, what’s the fit?’ It was still a long shot to me when I called Neil Lawi on the WWE music side to see about Cult Of Personality, just in case.”
On learning that Punk was coming to Survivor Series: “Day of the event, I want to say Survivor Series had started. That’s when I got word that ‘we’re going to try to paper this and get it done quick. He’s going to head that way.’ While we were live, on the air with Survivor Series. At that point, maybe five people knew. Right before he arrived at the building, I got word that everything was agreed to. We snuck him in the building, I left Gorilla for a minute to go say hello. The other talent, I pulled aside in the break before the match, before they went to the ring.”
On talking with other people backstage who were upset about Punk returning: “I’m sure there was a lot of mixed emotions. Controversial guy. Over the next day or two, I had a lot of very interesting private conversations with a lot of people to air their differences. We all got to an amicable place. I can say this about CM Punk, is this is a completely different CM Punk than he was when he left. It’s been all for the positive. He’s been nothing but a wonderful employee and a wonderful addition to the team. It’s been so refreshing working with him that we’ve been keeping him part of everything while he’s out injured. It’s been great.”
You can see a video of Triple H’s chat with Megan Morant below. Punk will be on commentary tonight at WrestleMania 40: Night 2 for the World Heavyweight Championship match between Drew McIntyre and Seth Rollins. The live premium live event broadcast begins at 7:00 pm EST. The show is being held at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field and will be broadcast live on Peacock.
