CM Punk returned to WWE back in November of 2023, but the WWE that Punk returned to is quite different from the company he left back in 2014. By the time CM Punk returned Vince McMahon had transitioned into a different role with WWE where he was seemingly less involved with the company’s day to day operations. However, CM Punk did cross paths with Vince one time after returning to WWE and he shared some details about their brief encounter during an appearance on the MMA Hour.
“I saw him [McMahon] at the [Titan] Towers… because again, everything happened so fast. So, Monday before Thanksgiving, get a phone call, ‘Oh, we realize we can do this’ and again, Nick Khan, ‘Hey man, if it doesn’t happen by Saturday, Royal Rumble’ and I was like, ‘Nick, I don’t wanna give away any leverage in negotiation but Saturday’s the business. It has to happen.’
So hammering out a deal, Saturday debut, Sunday, I’m at home and I’m like, man, this is strange. I don’t know what we’re doing, where this is going but it feels right and then I get a call, ‘Oh hey, we should probably get you travel to TV. We’re in Nashville.’
So I fly to Nashville. I think I went home and I can’t remember where I flew from there but it was a SmackDown and that night, they were just like, ‘Do you wanna come on the jet and do NXT?’ And I just went, ‘Yeah, sounds great,’ and we’re flying by the seat of our pants. We’re doing all this stuff real last-minute…
I was on the phone [at Titan Towers] on a treadmill warming up and Vince’s trainer is like, ‘Hey, you gotta get off the phone. Vince doesn’t like it when people are on the phone in the gym’ and I was on the phone with Nick [Khan] and I was just kind of like, okay, alright, you know?
And then I saw him walking down into the gym. He came in for his daily workout. He gave me a big hug and said, ‘Welcome home. Good to see you. Let’s connect after I work out’ and I was like, ‘Alright.’ Haven’t seen him since. No [I didn’t connect with him afterwards]. I think some stuff came up…”
H/T POST Wrestling
