WWE Spoilers: Backstage Monday Night Raw updates on CM Punk, Paul Heyman's pipe bomb and the Undertaker

The raucous edition of WWE's Monday Night Raw that aired live from the Allstate Arena just outside of Chicago last night brought with it plenty of surprises, but CM Punk was not among them. The Best in the World did not return to WWE in his hometown as many sites reported after Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer reported over the weekend that Punk would be there.

Meltzer had said that "one of the biggest stars in the industry" told him that Punk would be on Raw but did not name the source. He subsequently went on Wrestling Observer Radio and stated that he "was lied to" and that his source was not someone who currently works for WWE. He did say, though, that the person has been in the business for more than 20 years and is a widely known name. Finally, Meltzer noted that if the source were still within WWE, then he would have said with 100% certainty that Punk would be there.

As for the Paul Heyman pipe bomb at the beginning of the show, PWInsider.com reports that WWE decided to go that route because it wanted to address the CM Punk chants right away so that it could contain the chants rather than let them overtake the entire show.

The report goes on to state that WWE officials did not completely rule out the possibility of a surprise Punk return, but they never wrote him into the script. Other wrestlers were originally supposed to mention him in the script, but WWE eliminated most of those moments.

Furthermore, PWInsider notes that Heyman changed the script on the fly somewhat when he delivered his promo. He did not totally change the message, but he altered a few details that were not originally into the script.

Finally, PWInsider reports that Undertaker was not backstage despite WWE's advertisement of him on the WWE event page for the show. The company had planned a stare down between him and Brock Lesnar, but it scrapped those plans.

What do you make of this entire situation? Let us know in the comments below.