CM Punk says he’s not sure that the “casual wrestling fan” exists anymore, and thinks the audience is mostly made up of diehards today.
CM Punk took part in a media scrum after beating Eddie Kingston at AEW Full Gear on Saturday night. Punk was asked about the idea that WWE fans followed him over to AEW, and he said there’s definitely an overlap between those two groups, but he isn’t sure how much of that is strictly because of him.
“I definitely think there’s overlap, right, I don’t know if everybody who is a WWE fan specifically just to watch me. But what I recognize in front an AEW audience is an audience that I used to wrestle in front of, prior to me going to the WWF. They’re wrestling fans, and I will never understand the criticism of appealing to your fan base. If this is our fan base, we give them what they want. Everybody’s happy.
“Now I understand building a business, and people talk about trying to get casual viewers. I don’t think there’s casual wrestling fans anymore. My opinion, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe somebody in TNT’s gonna get mad that I’m saying this or I am of this opinion. But our fans are wrestling fans and we give them wrestling. Man, what a novel concept.”
To close out the scrum, CM Punk was asked about Jay Lethal’s arrival in AEW as well as his thoughts on what’s currently happening with Ring Of Honor. He said that it’s unfortunate because a lot of people are losing their jobs, but did note that he hopes Brody King is one ROH star that makes his way over.
“I think it sucks that the place is gonna go out of business because people are gonna lose their jobs. And I would like to see Brody King here maybe, but man, there’s so much talent there. There’s so much talent here. I’m sure you’re going to see — you didn’t even know Lethal was here until that happened. So I’m sure you’re gonna see different people [from ROH showing up]. It’s an exciting time.”
CM Punk also recently spoke about why he wanted to address Jon Moxley’s status in a promo on Dynamite; read more about why Punk thought it was important to show a message of support at this link.
Read More: Jay Lethal Explains How AEW Deal Came Together, Confirms He Won’t Appear At ROH Final Battle
The full video scrum is available below:
