Today In Wrestling History 7/25: CM Punk Returns To WWE After Walkout, Jim Cornette Makes WWF Debut

* 22 years ago in 1993, the WWF held a Monday Night Raw taping at the Castle Recreation Center in Alexandria Bay, New York. This was the first Raw taping held at a venue other than the Manhattan Center's Grand Ballroom or the Mid-Hudson Civic Center, and it was a rarity for this period in that there was no live broadcast, with shows being taped to air on August 2nd and August 9th. This was also Raw's first trip to far flung smaller towns that normally wouldn't have gotten a TV taping in the past, something that became all too common in 1994 as they started hitting more and more ~1,000 seat venues in remote vacations spots.

The big story coming out of the taping was one of Raw's most newsworthy and surprising moments of its first year, as long-time vocal anti-WWF voice Jim Cornette made his debut with the company. In the first hour of the taping, he sauntered to the ring between matches, where Bobby Heenan greeted him as if they were long-lost childhood friends. While Cornette's entrance was booed, Heenan hitting the ring and hugging him got a noticeable pop from the heel fans in the building. Heenan interviewed Cornette, putting him over like crazy as the greatest manager in wrestling history (Cornette: "Only because you're no longer managing!") and making a point to put over his Smoky Mountain Wrestling territory by name.

In the second hour, Cornette made two appearances. One saw him managing the Heavenly Bodies (Tom Prichard and Jimmy Del Ray) in their WWF debut, where they defeated Mike Bucci (the future Simon Dean/Nova, who Cornette later befriended) and Bobby Who.in a squash match.

The second was something he learned about after he arrived at the taping, even though it inserted him into the main event picture: When WWF Champion Yokozuna came out for the contract signing to finalize his SummerSlam title defense against Lex Luger, Cornette was introduced by manager Mr. Fuji as their new American spokesman. With a nonverbal top heel, they needed a great talking heel manager for him, and, well, Fuji wasn't that. For more details, read Cornette's column about the deal, which was originally published in Fighting Spirit Magazine.

* 4 years ago in 2011, WWE had a memorable, but strange episode of Monday Night Raw. There were multiple hooks going into the show; CM Punk walked out with the WWE Championship eight nights earlier in his hometown of Chicago at Money in the Bank, and had started making appearances away from WWE. The finals of a tournament started the previous week would determine the "new WWE Champion, as Rey Mysterio would face The Miz. Finally, the big cliffhanger on the previous week's Raw saw Triple H informing Vince McMahon that the board of directors was relieving him of his duties.

The show opened with the title match, where Mysterio defeated Miz in a really good match to win the title for the first (and only) time, having previously won the World Heavyweight Championship on SmackDown. After the match, Miz attacked Mysterio, leading to Alberto Del Rio trying to cash in Money in the Bank, but Alberto thought better of it when Rey made a comeback. In the locker room, John Cena was shown congratulating Mysterio when he celebrated with his friends.

Later, Triple H gave a "State of WWE Address" to go over everything that was happening. Somewhat randomly, he announced that the main event would be Mysterio's first title defense...against John Cena. He made a point to note that both wrestlers agreed to it even though it made little sense for Cena's character to challenge a compromised Mysterio or for Mysterio to go along with it. He closed by saying he had made a deal to bring back the man whose name he had been hearing everywhere...Jim Ross. He wanted to fire Michael Cole (still a heel), decided against him because of the size of his severance package, and dared him to quit and breach his contract.

The rumor was that Punk would start appearing at indie shows and other non-WWE events to get his storyline over. In the period between the PPV and this Raw, he showed his face twice:

First, he interrupted the WWE panel at San Diego Comic-Con. He confronted Triple H, who told him there was a new regime and that they should talk. He also talked about being the real champion, asked why Zack Ryder wasn't on TV, and made a joke about how Stephanie McMahon has his phone number if Hunter doesn't

He followed that up by a more spontaneous moment. He was at AAW show just to watch and say hi to friends, but he was impressed by Gregory Iron, Colt Cabana's tag team partner in the main event. Iron has cerebral palsy, and Punk, having the freedom to do so, cut a promo solely to put him over.

So meanwhile, back on Raw, Cena won the title in an excellent match. It was awkward to watch, though, because it made Cena such a heel for taking advantage of a tired, worn out opponent. As he was celebrating, Living Colour's "Cult of Personality" started playing in the arena. Fans of 2005 ROH knew what was about to happen, but nobody else did.

CM Punk was back, as without him, there was no suitable SummerSlam main event. He walked on the stage with his belt as a new entrance video started playing in sync with the music. He went to the ring, stared down Cena, and got the bulk of the fans' cheers as Cena made some subtle heelish facial expressions. It was one of those shows that felt like it was setting up a Cena turn, between the Rey stuff and his demeanor at the end, but obviously that wasn't actually the intent.