Amid reports that CM Punk is in line for a job at FOX for their WWE Backstage show, it’s important to talk about what we as fans feel like we “deserve,” especially when it comes to closure.
Let’s talk about that word for a second: closure. In WWE and wrestling especially, fans want nothing more than closure. After all, storylines in wrestling are designed to provide closure; a payoff, no matter how long they last. The same applies to the career span of WWE Superstars. That’s why it felt so important for fans to see Dean Ambrose get his final stand “One Last Time” with The Shield before he skipped town. Fans feel like they need closure.
It’s a natural feeling. People in general (wrestling fan or not) want and need closure, some more than others. There’s a psychology to it. That’s what social psychologist Arie W. Kruglanski was talking about when first coined the phrase “need for closure” in 1990. Closure lifts a certain weight off of our shoulders, erases any confusion left from a past encounter, and most of all, allows us to make peace with our past.
It’s hard for us to say goodbye without ever saying goodbye, but sometimes, that’s all we can do. Life isn’t like wrestling. Life doesn’t always offer us closure. Your last memory of a loved one before their death may be a bitter argument. Your last words to a sibling before they leave town may not have been heard over a bad phone call reception. Your date may stop texting you as soon as dinner’s over. And you know what? That’s okay.
Life and no one in life owes us closure. Life isn’t about closure. Life is about … life. Life is random. Life is chaotic. But as with everything in life, we live, we learn, and we grow from that lack of closure because we have to accept it.
In many respects, that’s all we can do as it pertains to CM Punk.
When CM Punk walked away from WWE in January of 2014, he left in more of a whisper than the bang expected of a former WWE Champion who held the belt for 434 days. He left storylines with The Authority wide open and a WrestleMania match against Triple H on the table. Yes, it’s disappointing as a fan to see we never got to see last hurrah from the man, but the reality of the situation justifies his exit.
As he pontificated in his tell-all interview with Colt Cabana 11 months after the fact and has regurgitated in multiple interviews since, Punk was tired. He was in pain. He was working hurt and WWE wouldn’t allow him to go home to rest up. So, naturally, he took his ball and went home on his own merits. Naturally, the whole experience he suffered during his last year or so in the company left him jaded enough to phase wrestling out of his life altogether.
And he’s done well for himself since he departed. He’s gotten married, become a comic book artist, tried his hand at UFC competition, and now is a leading man in his own horror film.
Yet, no matter how many years have passed since he was last inside of a WWE ring (it’s been almost six years now), fans still beg and hope for the return of CM Punk. Fans continue to chant his name at WWE events and rumors continue to circulate every so often that he’ll come back to wrestling in some way, shape, or form. Why? Because everyone wants that closure they missed five years ago.
The whole time, Punk decisively stated that he’ll never go back to WWE.
More recently though, Punk has had a change of tune; because, naturally, people change in five years time and have every right to change their minds. As recently as his Starrcast 3 interview, he said he’d open to talking to them again and take a call from them to hear what WWE have to say. Following this, more return rumors circulated, but these rumors hit a bit different.
These new rumors suggest that he’d be hosting WWE Backstage on FOX, although he’d be working more closely with the TV network than with WWE directly. Punk went on to confirm those same rumors during a recent Collider interview.
But that’s not all he said. He also added this:
"I will never put myself in a position where I can be harmed ever again and there’s a lot of trust that goes into that. I gave of myself to a point where I look back at it and if I didn’t leave and walk out, I would be dead, because nobody else was gonna do it."
Even if it appears that he’s made peace with WWE and doesn’t carry animosity for what happened five years ago, he doesn’t forget what happened five years ago, nor should he. In any other workplace environment (I’m talking a normal, nine to five job), WWE would be condemned for how they treated their employee, Mr. Brooks. Of course, they are condemned by the wrestling community in many ways still, but not enough that fans still aren’t begging Punk to go back to the same workers who put him in an awkward position.
For a lot of fans, it’s not even personal. They just want closure that badly. In any other workplace, we’d look at Punk a little funny for even being open to talking to them again, yet alone work directly under them, but again, many fans feel like they’re owed closure. The truth is we’re not owed a single thing and Punk does not owe us that closure.
You know what closure CM Punk received from WWE? A deadly staph infection, injuries piled on top of him to the point he needed to leave WWE, and papers in the mail telling him he was fired on the day of his wedding day.
Punk owes it to himself to do right by himself for himself. Fans should not have any input on what decisions he makes with his life or his mental health.
As a guy who loved Punk’s work and at one point considered Punk to be his favorite wrestler, I’d honestly pop if he came back, but that’s also not my decision to make. It’s Punk’s, and if he doesn’t ever want to come back to WWE, then hey, good on him. He needs to do what makes him happy. But if he decides to return to WWE TV ever again (either in the ring or hosting WWE Backstage), then, hey, good on him. Again, he needs to do what makes him happy.
The fact of the matter is that CM Punk may never come back to WWE TV and give us closure, and you know what? That’s okay. Life goes on. The beat goes on, as they say.
As with everything in life, we live, we learn, and we grow from that lack of closure because we have to accept it.
That’s just life. Life doesn’t owe us closure, and neither does CM Punk.