After ten years away from a WWE ring, CM Punk was ready to make his triumphant televised in-ring return at the 2024 Royal Rumble, and WWE Digital had the bright idea of chronicling the entire day as part of their Premium Live Event Vlog series.

On paper, it's a pretty good strategy, right? As Punk is a fantastic quote, and there was absolutely interest in seeing how he got from Point A to Point B, as the video's view count of 300,000 in less than eight hours clearly proves. Unfortunately, the video turned out to be more of a tragedy than a feel-good underdog story, as Punk went from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows when his in-ring loss was paired with an injury that was ultimately diagnosed as a torn triceps.

Discussing the match in its immediate aftermath, Punk celebrated the men he shared the ring and locker room with, shouting out the match's winner, Cody Rhodes, for being a standup guy.

“Just certain looks from certain people I get, and then I start crying again. And Cody's one of them,” Cody Rhodes told WWE Digital via Fightful. “He's a great dude. This locker room is everything the business is supposed to be. It's everything the business was sold to me as being, and it's remarkable, and that's why I'm so sad. I'm not sad I hurt my; I'm sad I'm temporarily out of this amazing situation.”

Punk then discussed his wife's reaction to his injury, noting that AJ Lee has been incredibly supportive of him throughout his professional career and will continue to do so this time around, too.

“I mean, she (AJ Lee) just says, ‘Come home, I want to give you a hug.' You know? She said that I'm sad. She's sad that I'm hurt. You have this weird guilt thing where, like, I'm apologizing to her, and I'm like, ‘Hey, sorry I'm putting you through this again,' you know, because she's just constantly been there through every surgery, I wake up, and she's there. I don't want to ever make her worry or put her in a situation that makes her feel sad. So, ‘We've been here before' is what she said. She's like, ‘You know, me and Larry got your back, we're gonna do everything we can to help you, nurse you back to health,' and she's like, ‘This is who CM Punk is. This is who you are. You don't let stuff stop you. You always come back bigger and stronger.' She's going to make sure that happens again.”

Normally, fans don't get to see the true inner workings of professional wrestling, with the fallout of an event or injury coming on the next episode of RAW, NXT, or SmackDown once writers have a chance to settle on the proper “take” following some pitch sessions. Being afforded a chance to see Punk react to his injury in the moment is as interesting as it is sad, as you can really see the pain he felt in having this magical moment taken from him after a mere 22 minutes in the ring – plus two house shows in December – to show for his efforts.

Tommy Dreamer compares CM Punk's WWE return to Aaron Rodgers.

Discussing CM Punk's abbreviated return to WWE on Busted Open Radio, Tommy Dreamer, a man who has shared the ring with the “Second City Saint” on 23 occasions, compared his appearance to that of Aaron Rodgers' debut for the New York Jets, aka an exciting situation that rapidly deteriorated into a tragedy in at the very same event.

“I really equated this to Aaron Rodgers,” Tommy Dreamer said on Busted Open Radio via Wrestling Inc. “Aaron Rodgers had so much buzz. This was going to be every Jets' fans year. Aaron Rodgers' second play of the first game of the season, tears his Achilles, out [for the season]. When you talk about deflated, and you know we all live in New York, the news was national news, but also local. For Jets fans like, oh, there goes our season. I think you have to give it another shot, if Punk wants to do that. I know he will want to because he's such a competitor.”

Alright, to Punker's credit, his debut in WWE lasted a whole lot longer than Rodgers' one appearance with the Jets, as he tore his Achilles four snaps into his run with Gang Green. Still, Dreamer isn't the first person to make the connection between the two veteran future Hall of Famers, and he likely won't be the last either, as the jokes, as they say, sort of write themselves.