CM Punk joins Raw brand, declares for WWE Royal Rumble

CM Punk is officially entering the Royal Rumble.

On Monday’s Raw, Punk officially signed with the Raw brand. After signing with Raw, Seth Rollins came out and told Punk that he should not call WWE his home, because he left ten years ago. Seth Rollins said it was his home now, and he would do everything in his power to keep people like Punk away from it. Punk responded by saying that nothing has ever been handed to him, and made it official that he was declaring for the Royal Rumble.

Earlier in the promo, Punk said that his choice was made when he heard that Raw would be at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio. He said this was the building where he made his debut with Mickie James, only to be sent to OVW after the match. It was also the building where he was kicked in the head by Randy Orton, having to be stripped of the World Heavyweight title.

He said it was ten years ago he had to make the hardest decision of his life and understood that people were disappointed in him, and he apologized. He said it was nearly ten years ago to the day he walked out, and ten years later he’s walking right back in.

That was when Rollins came out, as the two had a staredown. Rollins added that he hated CM Punk but wanted him to be on Raw as he knew this was Punk’s last chance. He said either Punk would self-destruct or, if he had any gas left in the tank, win the Royal Rumble and face Rollins in a World Heavyweight title match. Rollins said that would be the match where he would expose CM Punk for the fraud that he is.

Punk made his return to WWE back at Survivor Series in November. In the weeks since his return, announcers pushed that Punk was a free agent. He made appearances both on Friday’s SmackDown and on NXT’s Deadline event on Saturday.