Posted in: AEW, Sports, TV | Tagged: aew, cm punk, wrestling

CM Punk Says He Never Hated Professional Wrestling After Leaving WWE

Published Sun, 22 Aug 2021 10:07:11 -0500

CM Punk made his AEW Debut on Friday at AEW Rampage: The First Dance, creating an all-time great emotional moment for fans. You can read a full transcript of Punk's return promo here. After the show, Punk answered questions from the media, and he discussed the belief that he grew to hate pro wrestling due to the souring of his relationship with WWE. According to Punk, he never hated pro wrestling.

CM Punk returns to wrestling at AEW Rampage: The First Dance [Photo: All Elite Wrestling]

The topic came up while Punk was discussing the ice cream bars he gave away to all the fans who attended The First Dance at the United Center. "The ice cream bars to me, that's Andy Kaufman," said Punk. "I used to do it all the time when I would do Q and A's at Comic-Cons and stuff like that. I would bring people donuts, pizza, and these ice cream bars to me represent an idea, an idea that was gift-wrapped to people that didn't bother to take the time to try to understand their audience. This is the easiest homerun I've ever hit, and this is a legit thank you. Jon Lester came to the Chicago Cubs and won us a trophy, won us a World Series. When he got traded away, he opened up a tab at a bunch of bars as a way to say thank you to the fans. This is my way to say thank you to the fans."

"This is personal for me, and timing is everything," Punk continued. "It felt right. When I left Ring of honor, this is serious, I did not want to go, but I felt I couldn't stay. And you can't really explain that to people. It's just something you live through. And when I was sick and tired and hurt and I realized that these people wouldn't care if I died today, there'd be another show tomorrow, and I knew I had to remove myself from the situation. I didn't know how long it was going to take for me to heal, and then this came along, and, credit to everybody involved in AEW, it reminded me of places I used to work that I loved, where it was not about… This is more about the spirit of the thing, and this, instead of feeling like a house, it felt like a home. And this is the best way I can possibly describe it."

"I do not want to give negative answers and talk badly about anybody," said Punk. "This is why I make the distinction of August 13, 2005, I left professional wrestling. And on August 20th, 2021, I am back in professional wrestling. I don't think I ever hated professional wrestling. I could watch a terrible match. I could watch, you know, Bill Watts, UWF, Mid-South. I could watch Jim Crockett promotions and enjoy it. Rest in power Bobby Eaton, I could watch a Midnight Express match. I could listen to Steve Austin, stunning or otherwise, cut promos. I just think there needs to be a real distinction made of what I despised and it wasn't it wasn't professional wrestling They don't try to pretend that it is, so why are we gonna continue to try to pretend that that's what it is? Because it's not. So, if everybody's happy going forward, we're pro wrestling, and I think that's that's a beautiful thing."

You can read more about CM Punk's return to wrestling at AEW Rampage here.

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