A number of of us in and round WWE have shared their ideas about CM Punk returning to the corporate nearly a decade after strolling away from it, and after his tumultuous AEW run ended together with his firing a number of months in the past. A few of these have followers studying between the strains, or trying to find ulterior motives. Others are extra a recreation of “work or shoot?”
Bobby Lashley’s dialog about Punk with WrestlingNews.co’s Steve Fall is fairly clear. As with all interview with a professional wrestler, it’s potential a few of it’s storyline-driven… particularly because it appears WWE & Punk will likely be bringing real-life issues about his previous behind-the-scenes habits into their fictional world.
Whereas stating that he and Punk didn’t cross paths a lot throughout their preliminary runs with the corporate, Lashley admits to being ambivalent about Punk’s WWE comeback:
“I actually don’t know, to be sincere with you. I used to be truly leaving [WWE in 2008) around the time when Punk was really starting to pick up a little steam. I mean, he was there, but he really didn’t do anything at that time. And I know he had a big impact in WWE in his time there.
“I spoke with some of the guys that know him. I got mixed feelings. Some people were very against it, some people were, you know, whatever. But you know, it’s a land of opportunity. So, if he comes back and he helps out the show, and that’s the business side of it.”
Regarding how WWE should book the Best in the World now that he is back, Lashley hopes they don’t just push him to the main event. But maybe not for the reasons you’d suspect:
“For integrity purposes, I understand he has a big name, he’s coming back. And he’s gonna do some big numbers, but I hope they make him kind of work for some of the stuff. I hope he’s not one of the people that ‘oh okay, he comes back, gonna win the Rumble, we’re gonna do this, we’re gonna do that.’
“I hope they give him an opportunity to kind of prove his loyalty to the business and some of the people in there just to let everybody know, some of the naysayers, some of the people that aren’t too happy about him being there. I hope he has his opportunity to work his way back up to the top and not just [be] given every thing, as a result of possibly he negotiated a great contract that allowed him to do this.”
And if WWE does need the All Mighty to feud with Punk in some unspecified time in the future, Bobby has an angle in thoughts…
“I don’t actually know Punk too personally. After I was combating [mixed martial arts with Bellator], he went to UFC. I put my cash on him. So he does owe me a little bit bit of cash (Laughs). Twice. I used to be like, ‘Oh, you can do it. Come on.’”
[NARRATOR: Punk could not, in fact, “do it”]
In his one promo since returning at Survivor Sequence, Punk proved he’s prepared to place WWE over in a manner he’d by no means achieved earlier than. Will we see another indicators of humility from the Straight Edge Chicagoan to show the “naysayers” flawed, as Lashley hopes? Ought to we?
Tell us what you suppose, Cagesiders. And take a look at Fall’s total interview with Lashley right here.
