SI

CM Punk’s WWE Return Paid Instant Dividends

Also in Traina Thoughts: Weekend broadcasting highlights; NFL continues dubious fines; Jets cost company $1 million in TVs and more.

Jimmy Traina

1. The social media postings of Triple H this past Saturday night said it all.

The WWE chief content officer and the head of creative celebrated the return of CM Punk with a five-word caption.

Punk left the WWE in 2014 amid a variety of controversies: He walked out on the company. He was suspended. He was fired on his wedding day. He said he’d never return to the company.

Then in 2021, Punk joined AEW, but that ended up being a disaster, and he was fired from that company earlier this year.

If you are a legit wrestling fan, though, Punk’s return should not shock you. Despite all of Punk’s baggage and shaky history with the company, everyone comes back to the WWE eventually. Plus, the WWE is currently in negotiations for the future television or streaming home of Monday Night Raw, so it makes sense the company would want to stack the roster even more.

According to sources, Punk’s return to WWE came together very quickly and very few people, including higher-ups, knew Punk was back with the company.

The WWE handled Punk's surprise return well, having him come out at Saturday's Survivor Series when everyone thought the show was over. Whether it was the luck of timing or a brilliant planing, having Punk show up for his comeback in his hometown of Chicago worked out perfectly because the fans at the Allstate Arena lost their minds. And all Punk did was come out from backstage for a couple of minutes and soak in the response. He did not say a word.

But Punk’s return ended up working out better than the company could’ve ever imagined. That clip above is now the most viewed social video in the history of WWE.

But things worked out better than the company could’ve imagined not because of Punk.

Because of Seth Rollins.

In this day and age of the internet and nothing regarding pro wrestling being a secret anymore, it’s almost impossible for the WWE to have fans wondering whether something they see on screen is a “work” or a “shoot.” If you’re not a wrestling fan, “work” means scripted or planned, and “shoot” means not planned or scripted.

But nothing generates more buzz or interest when it comes to wrestling than fans trying to figure out “work” or shoot.”

That brings us to Rollins. The WWE superstar has said many times over the years that he dislikes Punk and has called Punk “a cancer.” So when Punk came out as Rollins and other wrestlers were in the ring after their main-event match, after the event went off the air, Rollins went wild and said if he saw Punk, he would “knock him the f--- out.”

Personally, I say it’s all a work. My philosophy is that if it happens in front of the audience, it’s a work.

However, many, many others say this was a totally legit reaction from Rollins.

When the WWE can cause this kind of speculation about work or shoot, it’s great for business. And you can bet that the company will get one of their best ratings of the year tonight for Monday Night Raw when the WWE Universe tunes in to hear what Punk has to say.

And to see what Seth Rollins does.

2. We have a lot to catch up on from the holiday weekend with regard to football.

Two highly amusing broadcast moments happened. Late in Amazon’s unwatchable Jets-Dolphins Black Friday game, Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit tried to liven things up by doing some nonfootball stuff in the booth. Michaels was telling stories about how Miami coach Mike McDaniel wooed his wife. The fellas went through Michaels’s history of calling games on each day of the week. And then chef David Chang sent up a sandwich for Al and Kirk, which immediately turned Michaels off because it had green stuff in it, and everyone knows Michaels has never eaten a vegetable.

Herbstreit had a great moment Saturday when he was in the booth getting ready to call the Florida State–Florida game, and Alabama completed its surreal comeback win against Auburn with a fourth-and-31 touchdown pass. ESPN’s cameras caught Herbstreit’s reaction to the stunning finish.

Not to make this about me (but I’m going to make this about me), what struck me about these two clips that I posted was the response I got. The Michaels moment was funny, and the Herbstreit moment was a cool look at someone’s natural response to an all-time finish.

But with Elon Musk completely destroying Twitter and the place being as big a vile cesspool as ever, the most angry, immature, triggered, unstable people came out of the woodwork to comment. Just look at the responses to each of those videos. It’s pathetic.

People were angry that Michaels didn’t like vegetables. People were fuming that he insulted Chang by scoffing at the sandwich. Meanwhile, college football fans took the Herbstreit clip as proof he roots for Alabama even though he played for Ohio State. 

It’s so sad that people can’t just see a clip and get amusement out of it instead of right away going to conspiracy theories, judgment and hate. Twitter is as bad as ever.

3. We have another broadcasting moment that deserves to be highlighted. Heck of a call here by NBC’s Mike Tirico on the celebration from Ravens wide receiver Zay Flowers.

4.  I recently wrote about J.J. Watt doing an outstanding job of holding the NFL’s feet to the fire when it comes to absurd player fines and bad reffing.

Watt has repeatedly called out the league for “stealing money” thanks to excessive fines on plays that seem harmless. And now we have the season’s most absurd and excessive fine.

Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown, at the very top of the screen, was fined nearly $44,000 for this “block” last week.

Yup, that is stealing money.

5. So many questions and thoughts about NBC’s cameras catching injured Chargers star Joey Bosa eating cereal during last night’s Baltimore–Los Angeles game.

• Why Raisin Bran? Did he have other choices?

• Raisins are useless and gross and ruin delicious oatmeal cookies.

• There is no way Bosa is satisfied from having just one of those little containers.

6. That hard-to-fathom pick-six on a Hail Mary that the Dolphins pulled off against the pathetic Jets on Black Friday wasn’t just another in a long line of embarrassing Jets moments. It also cost TCL $1,000,000 worth of 98-inch TVs.

The company had a campaign that it would give away $1,000,000 in TVs if the game had a 98-yard touchdown. The pick-six from Miami’s Jevon Holland was a 99-yard touchdown, but TCL is going to honor the giveaway, anyway.

7. A lot of people wanted to get away from their families on Thanksgiving and watch football.

CBS drew 41.439 for the Cowboys’ 45–10 blowout win against the Commanders. It was the third-most-watched regular-season game in NFL history.

Meanwhile, 27 million people watched Niners-Seahawks on NBC, making it the second-most watched Thanksgiving night game of all time.

8. The latest episode of SI Media With Jimmy Traina features an interview with NFL VP of broadcast planning Mike North.

North explains how a game getting flexed happens, why the NFL would want to flex a game and what goes into flexing a game.

North also discusses whether he thinks any games will be flexed this season, what the league thinks of having three Patriots games left in prime time, how the Aaron Rodgers and Joe Burrow injuries have impacted the prime-time schedule, whether the league would ever consider scheduling only the first half of the season and then programming times and networks afterward during the second half.

North also reveals whether the NFL has ever considered removing the Lions from Thanksgiving, what the league was looking for from its first Black Friday game on Amazon Prime and why the league is happy to have Taylor Swift as a fan.

Following North, Sal Licata from WFAN Radio and SNY TV in New York joins me for our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment.

You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Sports Illustrated‘s YouTube channel.

9. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: You know what seems to be over? The days of people causing riots in stores on Black Friday. I didn’t see any videos of this over the weekend. It’s good to see people actually control themselves for a change. This is how things looked on Black Friday in recent years.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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