Upon WWE’s lucrative TV deal with Fox which would see Smackdown become WWE’s flagship show, Fox also ordered a new behind-the-scenes show called WWE Backstage. The show was hosted by Renee Young and Booker T and would feature regular appearances from WWE superstars to talk about the biggest news stories and recent happenings in WWE. The show was sometimes in kayfabe and sometimes not, and on November 5, 2019, in just the second week of the program, WWE Backstage brought out a surprising new analyst for the show. Enter CM Punk.
CM Punk had left WWE under controversial circumstances in 2014 and this return was the last anybody would have expected. Punk had routinely called out WWE for their misdeeds during his “retirement” and would constantly say he would never go back to the promotion.
However, WWE Backstage was not technically a WWE show, it was a Fox show, and talent signed to WWE Backstage had contracts with Fox rather than with WWE. Still, his return to WWE in any capacity was huge news, and it left many fans speculating what all this could mean. Was this a prelude to Punk returning to a WWE ring, would he be a regular on WWE programming from now on?
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Change The Culture
At the end of the second episode of WWE Backstage, Renee Young brought out their new analyst and shocked the world when Cult of Personality started blaring through the Backstage studio and out walked CM Punk. Punk, as confident as ever, stepped into the studio and spoke the admitted iconic line, "Just when they think they've got the answers, I change the culture.” With a line like that, many fans were convinced that big things were planned for CM Punk in WWE. The next week saw a huge jump in ratings as CM Punk would make his first comments on WWE Backstage. What would he do? Would he bury WWE? Would he tease an in-ring return? WWE Backstage had suddenly become the hottest topic in the wrestling world.
Seth Rollins was the first to jump on the hype and immediately started teasing a match with The Best in the World. In CM Punk’s first episode as a WWE analyst, Punk immediately shot down Rollins' teases and an in-ring return altogether, saying this wasn’t the place or time. Punk’s first episode on Backstage was very interesting, Punk was much more critical of WWE’s storylines than any other analyst on the show, probably as he wasn’t contracted to WWE like the others were. Punk called a Roman Reigns/Baron Corbin segment “trash creative” and it made him regret coming back, he mocked the blue Universal Championship (and even got Paige to agree with him), he called Reigns and Rollins overexposed, and even teased Renee about Jon Moxley when he was a forbidden topic at the time.
It was entertaining stuff, but it was far from the epic return many fans had fantasy booked.
As the weeks went on, Punk continued to be critical of WWE but each time it became less and less newsworthy. Punk was very good in the role, he was witty and was constantly the best thing about the show, but Punk was slowly but surely becoming less special.
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CM Punk Developed Heat With The Miz
After a Miz appearance on WWE Backstage on the January 7, 2020 episode, @WWEonFox posted a small clip of Miz saying that was probably the best episode of Backstage yet. While Renee Young and Paige bantered that other episodes might have been better, Miz shot back with, “Oh, sorry. I didn’t ‘change the culture,’ My bad. My bad.”
Miz’s dig obviously struck a nerve with CM Punk who would tweet respond to @WWEonFox with a profanity-laced tirade against the Miz. Punk tweeted, “Go suck a blood money covered d*** in Saudi Arabia you f****** dork.”
Outside of that, the rest of Punk’s run on WWE Backstage was rather ordinary, he was entertaining to watch, but it was nothing newsworthy, and far from the epic wrestling return most fans were expecting. Fox canceled WWE Backstage on June 26, 2020, and that was that for CM Punk’s run on WWE Backstage.
CM Punk would never make an in-ring return to WWE but would sign with WWE’s rival promotion, AEW, a year after WWE Backstage was canceled. To the relief of many fans, Punk’s run with AEW has been exactly the kind of epic wrestling return most fans were hoping for.
