Fans waited 7 long years for CM Punk to make his return to professional wrestling, and he finally returned back in August when he made his AEW debut on Rampage. Since then there’s been a lot of talk about Punk’s return, and WWE Hall of Famer Eric Bischoff recently said that Punk has “s**t the bed” in AEW.
Bischoff continued to discuss CM Punk’s AEW run recently on his 83 Weeks podcast, and during the episode he explained why he feels Punk has underdelivered so far.
“When Punk came out and said that the AEW signing of him and Daniel Bryan was more significant than Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, well I kind of disagree with that. Yes CM Punk was at a high level, 7 fricking years ago when he was at his peak performance role in WWE. That was 7 years ago, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash were fresh off of WWE TV so you can debate significance because it’s another subjective term that’s unquantifiable and I’m not going to bother to do that. I’ll defer to the court, I’ll submit Punk’s position but what I found interesting is after Punk showed up with all his significance, far more significance than Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, only to see AEW lose viewership over the course of the next two or three weeks.
“Over that two-three week slide, Punk comes out and says ‘It’s going to take five years before anybody really notices,’ hahaha. That to me was like okay dude. And let’s go back a little further, when CM Punk felt the need to come out in his debut and disparage Hulk Hogan the way that he did, CM Punk doesn’t know Hulk Hogan. Never worked with Hulk Hogan, doesn’t know anything about Hulk Hogan. But he’s trying to get himself over with that dirt sheet/anti-Hogan community and then comparing himself above Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, categorizing himself as more significant and then to come out and when it’s time to deliver, way under delivered. Way under delivered, it bears pointing out. If you’re going to talk s–t and talk smack, then you have to be prepared for others to talk s–t and talk smack back.”
The former Raw General Manager continued to criticize CM Punk’s run with All Elite Wrestling while saying that a lack of story for CM Punk has hurt his perception.
“I think it’s a mistake to put Punk on such a pedestal that you think he’s so over that all he has to do is show up and sprinkle Punk dust on his opponent and that Punk dust is going to elevate his other opponent and not take anything away from Punk. I think Punk, the way he’s being used now, this is constructive criticism, I think that they diminished the perception. There was a ton of perception, great equity in that perception and then he shows up, does a great promo, gets a great reaction and then does kind of pretty much nothing. I’m not putting myself over but compared to Scott Hall and Kevin Nash because I’m not the one who did it first, Punk did, but Scott Hall and Kevin Nash showed up immediately in the story and s–t went through the roof and stayed that way for a long time. Showing up and getting that big pop and then having nothing for two or three weeks in a row doesn’t help Punk, doesn’t help the product.”
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H/T Wrestling Inc.
