CM Punk: ‘I’m not here to make friends’

If there were one way, to sum up CM Punk’s promo at the end of RAW last night, it would also be the last line he said before the show went off the air: “I’m not here to make friends. I’m here to make money.” When CM Punk delivered that line, you knew that this was a different CM Punk than the one who dropped the infamous pipe bomb over ten years ago. After the nasty fallout with AEW, Punk realized that his opportunity to make amends with the WWE was now and that if he was ever going to cash in big, he had to strike while the iron was hot.

Although CM Punk’s return at Survivor Series shattered all types of records, the crowd at RAW wasn’t as hot for him as it was in his hometown in Chicago. Punk started with a line that Triple H posted on X: “Looks like hell froze over. And when I mean hell froze over (…) this is me, standing in a WWE ring on Monday Night Raw with a live microphone in my hand. I don’t mean the fact that apparently a Blackhawks fan is universally loved inside the Predators’ yard (crowd boos.) Ok, sorry – I had to. You guys know that right? I got to be me, right? And lately, I’ve been feeling a little bit more like myself since Saturday, which was a career highlight for me”

Punk would later get into the reasons why it made sense to return to the WWE and gave a shout to his wife, AJ, who many wrestling fans still seek out on blogs and events.

“Saturday night was an amazing moment, Monday night is an amazing moment, I can’t describe how I feel to you but it’s been nothing but love. Nothing but hugs. It feels like a family reunion. Everybody back there is happy to see me, it’s all smiles, a few people kissed me on the mouth, it’s welcome back, welcome home, we’ve missed you, how’s AJ? And ladies and gentlemen I’m here to tell you AJ is fabulous and sends her regards.”

In typical CM Punk fashion, he addressed the big elephant in the room, which was the fact that some wrestlers were visibly upset that he was back in the WWE. One of them being Seth Rollins, who was captured giving Punk the middle finger when he returned. “Everyone has welcomed me back with open arms. Well, almost everybody. Some people are afraid. They’re afraid of the truth, they’re afraid of what they don’t understand but I understand. Everything I ever wanted has always been here, the competition week in and week out to be the best in the world, but the Best in the World hasn’t been here for almost ten years. I understand being afraid. They’re afraid that I just set the bar to an unattainable level. They’re afraid the brass ring is in my back pocket and they can’t grab it. They’re afraid the most dangerous and controversial, feared man in this industry just walked through the front door and there is nothing that they can do about it.”

Punk ended the promo by saying, “I’m not here to make friends. I’m here to make money,” which sums up his return and the meaning behind his promo.

It wasn’t a pipe bomb, but people can say that it probably was, but in the form of today’s wrestling, as it likely stung a few wrestlers in the back. It’ll be interesting to see what the WWE does with Punk, but whatever it is, the future looks bright for him as he gets another opportunity to make things right with the company that took his brand to high levels.

Abraham Gonzalez

Abraham Gonzalez is the founder of FightsATW. His journalistic work has been published and used across several platforms to include online, network TV and promotional companies. He is an American Public University alumnus and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA). Abraham was the Managing Editor for NYFights, Big Fight Weekend, contributed to FanSidedMMA and ProBoxTV.

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