CM Punk Reveals Vince McMahon ‘Ghosted’ Him Regarding a WWE Return After Meeting With Him and Triple H

– During an interview with My Mom’s Basement with Robbie Fox, WWE Superstar CM Punk revealed that he nearly made a return to WWE as early as 2018 after making a handshake deal with Vince McMahon! According to Punk, in around 2018 or 2019, McMahon started personally calling him and requested a meeting, which later took place at the Borgata in Atlantic City.

Punk revealed that things went so far along that McMahon made a “handshake agreement” with him. However, after that, Punk claims that McMahon “ghosted” him. That said, the meeting did allow Triple H and Punk to begin resolving their past issues, culminating in the current WWE Chief Creative Officer collaborating with Punk for his eventual return to WWE several years later at WWE Survivor Series in November 2023 in Punk’s hometown of Chicago. Below are some highlights (via Fightful):

CM Punk on Vince McMahon asking to meet him with him Atlantic City: “I think the Twitter and the internet perception is I tried to go back to WWE and they didn’t want me so I went and did the FOX show. That’s not what happened at all. I had a hilarious, clandestine meeting in the Borgata in Atlantic City with Vince (McMahon) and Triple H. I don’t even know now. What is it? It’s 2025. This has to be 2018 or ‘19, and it’s just because Vince just started (calling). I had agents, they were telling me, ‘Hey, they wanna talk to you’ and I was like, ‘Whatever, I’m not interested,’ and then Vince just started calling me.”

On agreeing to meet with McMahon and coming to a handshake agreement: “He was like, ‘Hey! I’m eliminating the middleman,’ and I was just like, ‘This is insane,’ and it just so happened that, ‘Oh, well, I’m gonna be here.’ ‘Alright, we can get there.’ You know, ‘Okay, alright’ and we had a meeting and we had a handshake agreement and then he ghosted me. So, that’s why it didn’t happen. Unbelievable. I’m gonna write a book someday… It’s a great story. It’s a fantastic story.”

On this being the first time he and Triple H started resolving some of their past issues: “Yeah, that would have been probably the first time that me and Triple H probably started chipping it away at any problems or drama that we had in the past. That was the first instance… Yeah (I was open to a return at the time). I was very much just like, yeah, okay. Pay me, whatever. I took some stuff personally. Like, years have gone by. Alright, I’m over it, recognized that it’s a business. You don’t want me to take it personally? Just pay me.”

The YouTube version of Fox’s interview with CM Punk will go live on Monday, July 21. Punk did appear on WWE programming as part of the WWE Backstage show produced by Fox Sports. He later returned to the ring for All Elite Wrestling (AEW) in 2021 before he was terminated by the promotion in 2023 following a backstage incident at AEW All In London. Eventually, he did sign with WWE, making his return later in the year at Survivor Series: WarGames in Chicago.