Randy Orton Says He Learned Of CM Punk’s Return Before WarGames, Thinks The Double Return Worked

Randy Orton recalls the double return at WWE Survivor Series 2023. 

Ahead of WWE Survivor Series, there was much speculation that CM Punk would make his return to the promotion seeing as the event was in Chicago and he was no longer with AEW. There was a fifth and final spot open on the WarGames team that consisted of Cody Rhodes, Jey Uso, Seth Rollins, and Sami Zayn. 

It was made clear on the Raw before Survivor Series that Orton was going to be the fifth guy. 

“There were rumors that Punk was coming back to WWE. This show was in Chicago. Fans on the internet kind of got this rumor going that the fifth man was going to be CM Punk,” Orton recalled during a WWE World (via WrestlingNewsCo) panel. “Of course, at the time, it wasn’t. It was going to be me. WWE was a little worried. The higher-ups felt that if they were expecting CM Punk and they got little old me that the fans wouldn’t be as happy as we would want them to be. They told everybody, ‘it’s not going to be a surprise, Orton is the fifth man.’ The day of Survivor Series, Hunter [Triple H] pulls me aside and he’s like, ‘We have to talk to you about stuff.’ We talked and talked. Ten minutes later, I thought the conversation was over and it was, ‘Alright. Let’s have a good show.’ ‘Cool.’ ‘One more thing. Well, Punk is coming back tonight.’ I was like, ‘You’re fucking kidding me, right?’ We gave up the surprise because he wasn’t coming. In that moment, I was a little pissed, but I don’t think either of our returns stepped on one another. I think fans were happy to see me and equally as happy, if not more happy, to see CM Punk. Punk is the man. Inside story, that night, it didn’t go down how I expected it, but in hindsight, it was perfect. You got two huge returns. It worked.”

Punk came out at the end of the show after the WarGames bout. 

During WrestleMania media week, Orton revealed that he reached out to Punk about returning in 2023. You can find his full comments by clicking here. 

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