CM Punk appeared on the Kap & J Hood radio program on ESPN Chicago on Monday to discuss his return to professional wrestling.
Punk spoke about the night and characterized it as possibly the greatest night of his career (Transcription by Jason Powell at ProWrestling.net):
I’ll take it back further, honestly. I was discussing this with a couple of my friends. That might have been the greatest moment, the greatest night of my career… Just the entire night couldn’t have gone more perfect. The way we set it up as the worst kept secret, man, selling out the United Center on the rumor that I was going to be there, never announced, never advertised. It shows the connection to the fanbase that AEW has, that they get it. They want to be involved, they want to be entertained, they want to go to shows and have a good time. So we didn’t feel the need to beat them over the head to get a TV rating. And don’t get me wrong, I know executives at TNT love their ratings, but to me pro wrestling has always been about moments and getting people to feel something. It was the perfect storm, the perfect night.
Punk also spoke about the upcoming match with Darby Allin at the All Out pay-per-view on Sunday, September 5th, and how he is preparing for his first match since January 2014:
I think it’s a lot of ‘Can Punk still go?’ ‘Can Punk still wrestle in the ring? ‘Can he be entertaining?’. Fortunately for me, I was never a guy that did a whole bunch of crazy flips and stuff like that, so I don’t have to go back and try to do these amazing athletic feats. My goal is to tell a story. And the way I get ready for this is to watch a lot of Darby Allin matches. It’s not different than a sports team watching tape on the team that they’re playing. I watch him and see what he can do, and then I get to get creative about it. And that’s how I get ready. Obviously, I’m in a television show that’s called Heels that’s on the Starz network. I’ve been in the ring. We’re filming wrestling. I have gotten in the ring and I have been training but not super extensively because it beats your body up, so I’m trying to be smart about it. But mostly just watching tape on him and I’m impressed by what I see.
The full interview can be heard on ESPN Chicago and read additional answers from Jason Powell.
