‘CM Punk’ chants were back on Raw last night

Most wrestling journalists tell us a CM Punk return to WWE is not imminent.

A few online purveyors of scoops are telling fans it’s still possible that the recently fired AEW star could come back to the company he walked away from back in 2014, however. That, combined with the usual “it’s pro wrestling... if he’s coming back of course they’d say he wasn’t” thinking is keeping hope alive for fans who want to hear Living Colour (or Killswitch Engage) at Survivor Series in Punk’s beloved Chicagoland later this month. And WWE has done a few things to encourage them.

It’s created an environment where, for the first time in recent memory, a “CM Punk” chant broke out on on a WWE show last night (Nov. 6) in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania during the Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Akira Tozawa match on Raw. It didn’t last long, and not everyone at Mohegan Sun Arena participated. But it was noticeable:

There’s been some discussion about the possibility of a “fan revolt” at Allstate Arena should Punk not appear on Nov. 25. Personally, I dismissed the notion. WWE has a hot product, and lately the fans paying for tickets to premium live events have been cheering and booing along with storylines rather than protesting them. There’s also enough debate about how to assign blame for Punk’s issues at AEW that I figured it would be unlikely thousands of wrestling diehards would be able to get on the same page to “hijack” a show with his name — even in greater Chicago.

But, in news that will be completely unsurprising to longtime readers of this blog, it seems I could be wrong. If Northeastern PA can muster up a Punk chant during a show where there was never any reason to expect him, the Survivor Series crowd could get feisty if it becomes clear they won’t be hearing “Cult of Personality” (or “This Fire Burns”).

The next couple weeks worth of rumors and teases could change things, but as of now it seems likely we’ll hear Punk’s name more often during WWE shows — whether we see his face on our screens or not.