I’m not vindicating rumors, and any story about CM Punk leaving WWE is, in fact, just that. I know exactly as much as The Observer, which is precisely zero factual information about this. Punk might be around forever for all any of us know. Punk is perhaps one of the few guys you could say have raised the bar in quality, in what you can expect out of a professional wrestler, nay, performer. He’s the kind of guy who would be welcome in any theatre. But if he were to take some time off, would I support that? Absolutely I would.
Vince McMahon is never going to give anyone a holiday. He’s just not built to work like that. So long as the current regime in WWE is in charge, barring any serious litigation, there will be no off season in the aggressive arts. Injuries appear to be the only time a major performer gets more than a week off in WWE. But what if a performer simply walked off? Would they lose their coveted “spot”? Would they be able to find work? Let’s look at some examples.
1) Bob Backlund
Didn’t think I’d start with Bob, did you? Do you even know who Bob is? Younger fans might remember him as the guy who crazily pretended to run for president in 1996. Maybe. But there have really been three acts in Backlund’s career. Though never the flashiest guy, Backlund held the WWWF title for over five years, and was the man who helped transition the WWE from the company they talk about in sepia flashbacks to the Rock n Wrestling era (okay, so he helped transition it by getting out of the way, but still).
Backlund wasn’t really seen again until 1993. Shortly after his return, he turned heel and surprisingly beat Bret Hart for the WWF Championship. Though that reign was short, you can’t suggest that WWE wasn’t behind Backlund as a performer, even after being away for so long. As well, if they had never let him come back, we might have never been entertained by his crazy old man schtick, which would have been a serious shame.
2) Rowdy Roddy Piper
Piper came and went from WWE so many times it’s often forgotten that he was ever “gone” at all. Highlight packages make it seem he was ever-present in the 80s, but that was simply not the case. Piper’s here one day gone the next approach was indicative of the territory days of the 70s, but few WWE performers continued to follow that in the 80s. Piper would continue to be a cameo player in WWE until late 1996 when he signed with WCW for a similar deal. He returned to WWE in 2003 and still to this day shows up for bit parts. He even showed up in the main attraction to Wrestlemania XIX, attacking Hulk Hogan. Which, of course, brings us to…
3) Hulk Hogan
Hulk Hogan worked his ass off in the 80s, no doubt about that. But beginning in 1990, he became less and less present in the WWE. In 1992, he “retired,” and took an entire year off. In 1993 he won the WWE Championship for three months, then left under poor circumstances, testified against Vince McMahon and the WWE in the steroid trials, and then went to work for the competition, nearly crushing WWE in the process. And yet even Hogan was welcomed back in 2002, headlined two Wrestlemania’s in a row, and was given a short run with the undistputed WWE Championship. Out of anyone, Hulk Hogan’s multiple acts in wrestling show that drawing power means far more to wrestling promoters than personal and business history.
4) Bret Hart
I thought I’d include an example that went in the opposite direction. While every performer I’ve mentioned so far had in some ways left the company, WWE arguably left Bret Hart. The “Montreal Screwjob” incident left a scar on Hart that lasted over ten years. But finally, in 2010, Hart returned to WWE to bury the hatchet with Shawn Michaels and Vince McMahon. He was greeted with open arms, and even competed here and there. Bret Hart is proof that time can heal just about anything.
5) Chris Jericho
Finally, the best example out of anyone. While most performers will do their best work on their first run, Jericho is entirely the opposite. His first run with WWE, from 1999 to 2005, was at best okay. He rarely showed the same charisma that he’d delivered in WCW and internationally, and was in many ways a lesser performer than in the 90s. But then Jericho took two years off. He toured with his band. He wrote a book. He acted. He spent time with his family. Finally, he returned in the autumn of 2007. Six months after returning, he evolved into a new kind of Chris Jericho. He redefined his character and also his wrestling style. He won the World Championship multiple times and even headlined a Wrestlemania. It might go down as the best second act out of anyone’s career in WWE (I’m excluding WCW, as you’d absolutely have to give it to Hogan if I kept it in).
6) CM Punk
Given the examples, it appears evident that with or without competition, WWE will entirely allow a former performer to return to the company under any of the following conditions: They can still draw, they can still perform, they are missed by the fans and the locker room. I don’t think Punk will ever fail to fulfill any of those.
K Sawyer Paul is an author and publisher living in Toronto. He tweets and tumbls. In the wrestling world he is known for This is Sports Entertainment and Aggressive Art.
Edited by Razor
