10 Real-life WWE stories we learned this week: Events that led to Daniel Bryan's firing, 5-time Champion rejected offer from the company

#4 CM Punk was supposed to win the 2008 Royal Rumble

In 2008, John Cena made a sooner-than-expected return when he recovered from a torn pectoral muscle injury to win the WWE Royal Rumble, setting up a WrestleMania XXIV Triple Threat match against Triple H and Randy Orton in the process.

CM Punk said on this week’s episode of WWE Backstage that, had it not been for Cena’s miraculous return, he was originally booked to win that year’s Royal Rumble.

As it turned out, he won the Money in the Bank ladder match at WrestleMania and cashed in later in the year to become the World Heavyweight Champion.

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#3 Bret Hart wishes he stayed in WWE

Bret Hart has been very outspoken over the last two decades about his disappointing three-year run in WCW, while he has also reflected on his controversial 1997 exit from WWE in countless media interviews.

It is fair to say that the five-time WWE Champion could have been treated better by both companies, but it seems that he is particularly unhappy with how he was booked in WCW.

Despite the bad feeling that he had towards WWE in the late 1990s, Hart said on WWE Backstage that he wishes he figured out a way to stay with the company instead of joining their biggest rival.