WWE: CM Punk on His Return to WWE & “Triple H & I Are More Similar Than We Want To Admit”, Ice Williams vs. Brad Baylor Set for WWE Men’s ID Championship Tournament, A&E WWE Ratings, More News

Mar 27, 2025

CM Punk Comments on His Return to WWE & “Triple H & I Are More Similar Than We Want To Admit”

The premiere episode of WWE Stephanie’s Places on ESPN+ featured CM Punk as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Punk’s thoughts about the talks he had with WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque that led to his return to WWE in November of 2023.

“If there was ever a guy you said will never return here, it would be CM Punk. If you look at the history and everything that had gone down; his side, company side. I think he would have said it a couple of years ago, ‘Never happening,’ but things change. When I spoke to him on the phone I said, ‘Phil, if you’re the same person now that you were ten years ago, you wasted ten years of your life. If I’m that same person, I wasted ten years of my life. Let’s put all that stuff beside us and talk about what are the possibilities?’ We snuck him into that building. The contract wasn’t done yet. All that stuff was happening in real time. Gaurantee, CM Punk, as we say often, you couldn’t drive a ten penny nail up his ass with a sledgehammer. I guarantee you he was beside himself with doubt.”

Punk also gave his thoughts about how he and Triple H are more similar than they would like to admit.

“Thanksgiving, on a Zoom with your husband, probably having a conversation we should have had ten years ago. I’m telling him, ‘Hey, don’t worry about it. Go cut the turkey. Go spend time with your family.’ He’s like, ‘No, we gotta do this.’ Everything came together so fast. I was still unsure of a lot of stuff. There is definitely that part of a performer’s brain, ‘Are they going to remember me? Are they going to care?’ I think me and your husband are way more similar than maybe even today we want to admit. I felt it was going to be a big deal, and then that washed over me, ‘Oh, this is way bigger of a deal than I thought it was going to be. Okay, we got something here.'”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

Ice Williams vs. Brad Baylor Match Announced for WWE Men’s ID Championship Tournament

WWE recently announced the first official match for their upcoming WWE Men’s ID Championship tournament to crown the inaugural WWE Men’s ID Champion.

This new match announced was a WWE Men’s ID Championship Tournament First Round match of Ice Williams vs. Brad Baylor.

It was also announced that this match will be taking place at Future Stars of Wrestling’s event on April 18th in Las Vegas, Nevada.

BREAKING….

The first match has been signed for @FSWVegas presents the ID Tournament on April 18th in Las Vegas

After what we just saw on #WWEEvolve, it'll be @IceWillliams vs. @bradbay1or in a WWE ID Title Tournament opening round match!

Tix: https://t.co/kP9teu6yvg pic.twitter.com/hkRgKtWkT3
— WWE ID (@WWEID) March 27, 2025

A&E WWE Programming Ratings – March 23, 2025

This past Sunday’s WWE LFG episode drew 156,000 viewers on A&E. This episode also drew a 0.05 rating in the 18-49 demographic. This was down compared to last week’s show’s 180,000 viewers but up to its 0.04 rating in the 18-49 demographic.

This past Sunday’s WWE Rivals episode drew 160,000 viewers on A&E. This episode also drew a 0.05 rating in the 18-49 demographic. This was down compared to last week’s show 180,000 viewers but equal to its 18-49 demographic rating. This episode focused on the memorable Ric Flair vs. Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat rivalry.

This past Sunday’s WWE Greatest Moments premiere episode drew 115,000 viewers on A&E. This episode also drew a 0.03 rating in the 18-49 demographic. This was down compared to last week’s show 133,000 viewers but equal to its 18-49 demographic rating. This episode focused on the Celebrities of the 80s.

Source: Programming Insider

WWE News & Notes

Wednesday’s WWE EVOLVE show featured NXT talent Stevie Turner being officially announced as the General Manager for the EVOLVE brand.

Wednesday’s WWE Speed show on Twitter featured Sol Ruca defeating Katana Chance to advance to the next round of WWE’s newest #1 Contender’s tournament for the WWE Women’s Speed Championship. Ruca will be facing off against the winner of Michin/Shayna Baszler in the Finals of WWE’s current tournament.

The family of the late James Harris, also known as Kamala in WWE announced on Facebook that they recently signed a posthumous Legends contract with WWE for Kamala.

WWE recently revealed the next match in their on-going countdown of their Top 50 matches in WrestleMania history. The 22nd spot was the Kurt Angle vs. Shawn Michaels match from WrestleMania 21.

WWE also recently released one new video to their WCW Vault channel on YouTube. This new video was the WCW Cruiserweight Championship #1 Contender Ladder match of 3 Count (Shane Helms & Shannon Moore) vs. The Jung Dragons (Kaz Hayashi & Yun Yang) vs. Evan Karagias & Jamie Knoble from WCW Starrcade 2000.

WWE also recently released one new video to their WWE Vault channel on YouTube. This new video was a “The story of Sting vs. Triple H at WrestleMania 31.”

WWE also recently released one new video to their NXT Vault channel on YouTube. This new video was the full April 10, 2014 episode of WWE NXT.

Dominik Mysterio recently announced on Instagram that he has partnered with Wingstop to promote their new chicken tenders.

European Football League player Yago Rivero recently announced on Instagram that he will be participating in WWE’s upcoming talent tryouts on March 31st in London, England. Rivero stated “Imagine you are chilling at home looking through your phone and then suddenly you get a text message that can change your life. Well that’s how WWE contacted me directly to invite to their tryouts in London. They have selected athletes from across the world to be the next WWE Superstars, and somehow I was chosen to be part of this. I was thinking about even sharing this, but if I was a child and I had this opportunity, I would like to live this with him. That’s why I’m sharing this, because we’ve all had a childhood dream we wanted to follow and this is mine. If someone would have told as a kid that in 15 years that I would have a chance to join WWE, I would have never believed it. Life is funny sometimes and now I am one step away. If you want to live this with me, follow me in this journey. We taking it all.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)