I was watching Survivor Series 2023 with my friend Mark, and when the main event ended, and all the babyfaces were celebrating their WarGames win, and WWE put the graphic up on the screen indicating the show was over, we both remarked that it was a pretty by-the-numbers Survivor Series. Two very good WarGames matches, three short matches in the middle that may as well have aired on Raw or Smackdown, and a basic three-hour run time. Mark noted that there weren’t even any surprises. I said, “Well, Randy Orton came back.” He noted that wasn’t really much of a surprise, given it had been advertised in advance. He said his favorite PPV was the Royal Rumble, because no matter what happened, you were always guaranteed at least one surprise or another.
And then, suddenly, boy, did we ever get a big surprise.
CM Punk returned at the end of the show, having signed a multiyear contract with the company that he had walked out of a decade earlier. At the time, despite the “never say never” saying that we always hear in wrestling, I was certain he would never come back. He had nothing but terrible things to say about the company. He told people that he would consider it a personal failing if he ever came back. He was embroiled for years in a defamation lawsuit with WWE doctor Christopher Amann that—although he won—cost him an incredible amount of money in legal fees and his longtime friendship with Colt Cabana, and then a second lawsuit with Cabana, all built around a podcast the two did where Punk discussed his time in WWE and reasons for leaving. He had also told Paul “Triple H” Levesque in their final meeting, regarding having a match with him at WrestleMania: “I do not need to wrestle you. You need to wrestle me. I do not want to wrestle you.” Hunter, he said in the Cabana podcast, “never liked me. Me and him in a room together—it was always negative vibes.” Hunter (Levesque) just happens to be the guy in charge of WWE creative today.
