AEW: CM Punk on His AEW Career, Chris Jericho on Original Idea for Name of JAS, Powerhouse Hobbs

CM Punk Comments on His Current AEW Career Being “Everything I Dreamed Pro Wrestling Could and Should Be”

ESPN held a recent interview with CM Punk. One of the topics discussed included Punk’s thoughts about his current career in AEW.

“I feel like it was kind of wasted,” Punk said of his time in WWE. “It could have been so much more. It should have been so much more. And now, this is everything I dreamed pro wrestling could and should be. And I’m here and I’m f—ing in the moment. I’m not thinking about tomorrow. I’m not worried about s— that happened yesterday. I’m living in the moment and I’m 100% in my f—ing prime, best I’ve ever been …

There’s people that I shared locker rooms with that I wish I could have just talked to like a normal person and picked their brain,” Punk said. “But everybody is like so guarded. I literally just want to show them I’m an open book. I’m here. I’m walking around all day [backstage]. Whatever you need, I’m literally here for you. It’s a full-time job, baby. Literally. But I love it.”

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Chris Jericho Comments on Original Name Pitched for Jericho Appreciation Society

A recent episode of the Talk Is Jericho podcast featured host Chris Jericho discussing a variety of topics. One of the topics discussed included Jericho revealing that the original idea for the name of his Jericho Appreciation Society group in AEW was for his group to be called “The Citadel.”

“I thought, ‘this [Kingston bringing up Santana & Ortiz] is interesting, we can have some dissension here.’ Then, the fateful moment where Daniel Bryan is going to align with Moxley and he goes, ‘We can bring in Moriarty, we can bring in Wheeler Yuta, Daniel Garcia.’ I was like, ‘is this a thing? If it is, we’ve built up these three guys who have beat up Eddie Kingston and Chris Jericho and now they’re going to break it apart? These guys have to stay together. They have to stay together with me! It’s perfect.’ It hit me like, ‘Holy shit.’ Eddie Kingston, Santana, Ortiz have history, they do their thing, I start a new faction with you three and Jake because Jake and I have always been together since day one and I need a killer. ‘This could really work.’ That’s the original idea I pitched to Tony and said, ‘What do you think about this? I know it’s weird.

The original idea for this whole plan, the name of it was going to be The Citadel. I thought The Citadel was great. I said it to Tony and there was no pop for it whatsoever. I was like, ‘The Citadel sucks. I need something better.’ I was looking at the Art Appreciation Society or something like that, some weird email of ‘if you like this, maybe you should check out the Art Appreciation Society in downtown Detroit.’ Then, The Jericho Appreciation Society was just cheesy enough. It’s pretentious.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

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Powerhouse Hobbs Comments on His Career’s Growth in AEW

A recent episode of Fightful’s Grapsody podcast had Powerhouse Hobbs as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Hobbs’ thoughts on the growth of his career in AEW.

“I’m no dummy here.. You look at that time when I went up against Orange Cassidy for the first time. Orange Cassidy was in a feud with the number one heel in wrestling, which was Chris Jericho. I knew, with my size, against Orange, I was going to be featured in a video package. My job was to go out there and make his superman punch look so believable. When they had that promo package with Orange and Jericho for the Mimosa match, I counted myself maybe four or five times being superman punched. Why would I not want to go out and make someone else look good? In hindsight, that’s what we’re supposed to do.

I had people thanking me, saying, ‘Sorry.’ Don’t tell me sorry. I already know what was going to happen.How did Orange Cassidy knockout then 276-pound dude with one punch and he’s half his size? Come on now. This is the number one baby(face), at the time, against the number one heel. Why would I be mad at that? I flew all the way across the country to lose in 12 seconds, okay, whatever.

Look what the outcome is. Look how many opportunities I’ve had. Look how many times I’ve knocked things out of the park. I’ve wrestled Christian Cage, Brian Cage twice, Hangman Adam Page, CM Punk in his debut back on TV, I’ve main evented Rampage with Keith Lee and was in a featured tag match in New Orleans that had people jumping out of their seats.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com