Real recognizes real.
AEW star CM Punk recently appeared on the ‘AEW Unfiltered’ podcast, where he said, like most of us, he was a massive fan Bret Hart, Eddie Guerrero and even gave an honorable mention to Roddy Piper. Punk would delve into how all three have had a massive influence on his career, touting how their styles still hold up in present-day wrestling.
“I think you can see fingerprints on a lot of different guys with everything that I do. Obviously, I’m known as a talker, right, [Roddy] Piper was a guy that I watched religiously and I don’t think the majority of Roddy Piper’s greatness was realized, the stuff he did in California and in Georgia or with Jim Crockett Promotions,” Punk noted, “I think that stuff is light years better than any of the stuff he did in WWF. His WWF stuff was so great, but I think there were a bunch of hidden gems out there.
“I think Bret Hart is the best there is, the best there was and the best there ever will be. I think his stuff holds up, I was a Shawn Michaels fan growing up because he was flashy and he was cocky, but some of his stuff doesn’t hold up the way Bret’s does. Bret’s timeless. It’s corny, but he’s ‘The Excellence Of Execution’ and he called himself that. And at the time it was a cool nickname, but now I look back and realized that everything he did was fundamentally sound. He didn’t misstep once. Everything he did, there was a reason for it, you watch his matches and think that’s how you want to model yourself after,” Punk said.
“Same with a guy like Eddie Guerrero, fundamentally sound but could do these amazing things. Like, his understanding of Lucha and how to incorporate that into the American style and make it make sense and like blow your mind, it’s tremendous. I’ve worked with a lot of great guys and I think I’ve mentioned I got to work with [Ricky] Steamboat, I got to do stuff with Bret, Tracy Smothers, Chris Candido,” Punk explained, “but Raven is a guy that I don’t think I’ve really ever mentioned him but he needs the credit to be the first guy that I worked with that would sit me down and he would literally be like ‘okay, you’re shit.’ He was a little harsh at times and he helped me grasp having stuff make sense. He would help me when I was just a dude doing matches and I would try to do a New Japan super juniors match because they do cool moves and he was a guy that would say to slow down and try to make things make more sense.”
CM Punk also talked to Aubrey Edwards and Tony Schiavone about how he isn’t the true “Pepsi Man” anymore and revealed his go-to Chicago pizza spots. Read which restaurants made the cut at this link.
