CM Punk Shares That He Had Handshake Agreement With Vince McMahon In ‘2018 or ‘19’ For WWE Return, Says McMahon Ghosted Him

Punk said it was the first time he and Levesque began to hash out their issues.

It is coming up on the second anniversary of CM Punk’s return to WWE at Survivor Series 2023. He had been away from the company for 10 years, but there came a point when Punk met with former WWE Chairman Vince McMahon and Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque about a return pre-pandemic.

While sitting down with Robbie Fox on My Mom’s Basement, Punk revealed that in ‘2018 or ’19,’ he met with McMahon and Levesque in Atlantic City, New Jersey. This was before the WWE Backstage on FOX gig came about.

Punk’s agents relayed to him that McMahon and Levesque wanted to chat, but Punk said McMahon was personally calling him to cut out the middleman. He added that they eventually came to a handshake agreement, but McMahon ghosted him. Looking back on that, Punk said it was the first time he and Levesque had hashed out their lingering issues.

“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.”

In a media appearance in 2024, Punk opened up about how the ball got rolling for his return at Survivor Series. To read his comments, head over to this link.

If the quote in this article is used, please credit My Mom’s Basement with Robbie Fox with an H/T to Fightful for the transcription.