AEW Rampage Post-Show Media Scrum: CM Punk on Contract Length, Talks with Tony Khan, Ice Cream, AEW Debut

AEW held a post-show media scrum following Friday’s AEW Rampage “First Dance” show with CM Punk and AEW CEO Tony Khan.

On the topic of Punk’s contract with the company, Punk stated that it was not a short-term deal. Khan confirmed stating that “we’re going to be doing this for a while. We’re excited. This isn’t a short-term thing or a part-time thing. This is full-time and we’re very excited.”

On the topic of Punk’s talks with AEW, Punk stated that he had been talking to Khan over the past year and a half regarding his return to wrestling and a possible deal with the company.

“I’ll go ahead and spoil that I’ve been talking to Tony for probably a year and a half about this. Some girls are easy to get into bed. I am not. I need to do wined and dined. That’s not, ‘oh I need more money and less dates’ and ‘oh I need this and I need that.’ It was literally just talking to Tony and getting to know him, and the more people that he employed that I knew, I’d ask them questions and they’d tell me things.

I’ve been in the game for a few minutes, you know, so I’ve seen that. I think I traced it back to, especially since the downfall of ECW, every six months to a year, somebody pops up, ‘I have money, we’re gonna have TV and we’re going to use all the ECW guys.’ This is not a slight on Tony at all. It’s more of, it’s more of a slight at me being a paranoid, neurotic, anxiety-ridden, very careful person, and I wasn’t in a hurry. The pandemic kind of help that out, you know, and I knew I couldn’t debut if there’s no people in the building. So, I always say, timing is everything, and there were a lot of happy accidents along the way that made this possible.”

On the topic of the ice cream bars handed out to fans at the show, Punk stated that the ice cream represented “an idea, an idea that was gift-wrapped to people that didn’t bother to take the time to try to understand their audience” and his way of thanking his fans.

“The Ice Cream bars were me. That’s Andy Kaufman. 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 doughnuts, pizza. 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 home run I’ve ever hit. This is a legit thank you. You know, John 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 timings everything. It just felt right. When I left Ring of Honor, I did not want to go, but I felt I couldn’t stay. You can’t really explain that to people. It’s just something you live through. 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. 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. Then this came along and credit to everybody involved in AEW. It reminded me of places I used to work that I love, where it was not about — It was just more about the spirit of the thing. Instead of feeling like a house, it felt like a home. That’s the best way I can possibly describe it.”

On the topic of his AEW debut, Punk stated that it was the “worst kept secret” but it was also designed that way for a reason.

“So, again, now this kind of goes back to one of the appealing things about AEW for me, and it’s a bit of a bummer of a topic; Brodie Lee passes away. Right. Come to find out that he was sick, but nobody knew. Nobody said anything to anybody, because they knew Brodie, they loved Brodie. So, seeing that I was like, I mean there’s something about that, you know, like, if that was anywhere else, it’d be all over the internet. His poor wife would have to be dealing with that on top of already dealing with this tragic event.

We also don’t want to beat you over the head with it and lie. You know, I didn’t have them construct some fugazi pipe and drape and drive me in the United Center and hide me from everybody. I walked in here like a human being, and I was like, ‘hey everybody,’ meeting people walking through the hallway because I just think these people, again, nobody’s back here standing on their own dick. Everybody’s getting out of their own way. Just let stuff happen and having fun. Behind the camera and in front of the camera, people just having fun, and they just want to be a part of it, that’s it. So nobody’s trying to, you know, tweet and spoil stuff. Let’s just all have fun.

So I think a lot of people back here were in on it. They knew I was going to be here but they weren’t sure, and man isn’t that fun? Isn’t that fun? Worst kept secret designed that way for a reason. You can criticize and say well, ‘they should advertise, maybe the ratings will be better.’ It’s about the moments. It’s about the moments and making people go ‘oh man, I can’t miss the show I don’t know what’s going to happen. This is fun and I want to be a part of.'”

Full media scrum:

Sources: Fightful 1, 2, 3, & 4