CM Punk is open to wrestling in New Japan (unless he’s not)

Even with his professional mixed martial arts debut at UFC 203 a little more than a day away, CM Punk can’t escape questions about returning to his old profession, professional wrestling.

A post on SI.com’s Extra Mustard blog features a lengthy discussion of his time in the business, and Punk expressed a real affinity for work in Japan. The topic of possibly working for that county’s biggest wrestling promotion, New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), comes up, and the Chicagoan says:

A long time ago I stopped saying “never”, but that’s a loaded question. I don’t know the answer. No matter what I say, it’s going to take on a life of its own.

That’s interpreted in the piece as his being “open” to working in NJPW. While he doesn’t definitively say no, it certainly doesn’t sound like he has any plans to pursue dates in the Tokyo Dome or Ryōgoku Kokugikan any time soon.

As he’s said many times, the only thing he’s ruling out is a return to WWE (and most wrestling fans who’ve seen guys like Bret Hart and Ultimate Warrior return to Vince McMahon’s company after bitter splits don’t even buy that). But to classify New Japan as anything other than another thing on the “never say never” list seems like a bit of a stretch.

Take this quote from an interview with ESPN’s Russillo & Kanell back in June as evidence:

But you never know, I could pop up here and there. Let me explain that to you even better... it's not going to even be televised, it's going to be me in a ninja f--king outfit wrestling one of my buddies and nobody's ever going to know. It's going to be very 'Monty Python' so to speak.

Keep hope alive, Cagesiders, but don’t expect to see Punk vs. Minoru Suzuki any time soon.