Nick Khan comments on the possibility of CM Punk returning to WWE

Lots of people have talked about the possibility of CM Punk returning to WWE after Tony Khan ended Punk’s tumultuous AEW run by firing him on the eve of that company’s All Out PPV.

Some of those discussions have been interesting, but won’t ultimately determine whether Punk ends up back with WWE for another run. In fact, we’ve heard two people will make WWE’s decision on Punk — the company’s President, Nick Khan, and its Chief Creative Officer, Paul “Triple H” Levesque.

Well, ESPN’s Marc Raimondi had some time with one of those men recently. While discussing WWE & UFC merging under the new TKO Group Holdings, Raimondi asked NIck Khan, “whether or not WWE would be interested in bringing back CM Punk following his firing from AEW”.

The response:

“Listen, we only have respect for Phil [Brooks, Punk’s real name]. We appreciate his run here. We appreciate what he did and tried to do with the UFC. Not many people can actually get in there and do what he did. So, when we have respect for Phil, we wish him nothing but the best.”

As Raimondi pointed out in his post on X (fka Twitter), it’s not a “yes” or a “no”.

What it is is a very tactful non-answer. The ability to deliver those is part of Nick Khan’s job description.

But it’s probably at least somewhat noteworthy that he didn’t completely rule out the possibility of Punk returning to the company he parted ways with in 2014, right?