This thread is still going?
Just to reiterate because you need to when it comes to even slight defenses of Pariahs, but Punk is mostly the one in the wrong for how his AEW run ended. He couldn’t control his reactions to things he felt were disrespectful and got into fights, but the key here is 99% of what Punk did wrong was in how he reacted. I feel like people have a tendency when someone is mostly in the wrong to then absolve everyone else involved. If you don’t have a performer shooting about a backstage issue they had over a glass spot on live PPV, there’s no backstage blowup over it.
I don’t know what other Punk fans are hopeful to see happen here as I’m mostly just, as Phil said in the above post, looking to move on. I love Punk, but I’m honestly done talking about him when it’s not about his matches or promos. So I don’t personally know if I’d say I’m hopeful he shows up at Survivor Series.
That being said, I do think there’s some false equivalencies being made when it comes to why those fans might feel it’ll be different. His WWE run was NOT the same as his AEW one. He was there from 2005-2014, almost ten years and he did not have a history like he did his much shorter run in AEW. Punk’s issue with WWE didn’t come until near the end of that run and was over creative differences and he wanted more time off for his health as he felt the road was making him sick. He wasn’t fired from WWE for behavioral issues. He walked out and was fired for not returning to work after Vince hoped he’d come back like Austin in a similar fashion earlier.
Would Phil be able to make it work in WWE after his disaster of an AEW run or would that pollute his mind no matter where he went next? Hard to say, but I can say that WWE doesn’t play games when it comes to going into business on live television so I feel that factor would be removed from the equation as would rumors that he had the stroke to get anyone fired. He’d just be a cog in the machine.
Punk wouldn’t have the fuel to excuse his abhorrent behavior so if he randomly snapped at people and started fights for simply not liking him, he’ll look even worse than he already clearly does, but before AEW that was not his legacy so it’s hard to say.