CM Punk says he had a “handshake agreement” with WWE in 2018-2019 but was “ghosted” by Vince McMahon

While speaking to My Mom’s Basement, CM Punk addressed how close he came to making a WWE return prior to his appearances on FOX’s WWE Backstage show in 2019-2020…

“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. 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.

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.” (quote courtesy of Andrew Thompson)