CM Punk on His AEW All Out Match With Darby Allin

CM Punk announced in his first AEW promo that he’d be competing at this year’s All Out pay-per-view against Darby Allin. The former TNT Champion had called out Punk in the weeks leading up to his arrival, then cut a promo after AEW Rampage telling Punk it’d be “an honor” to face him. Punk appeared on ESPN Chicago’s Kap & J. Hood this week and talked about the match.

“I think it’s a lot of ‘can Punk still go?’ Can Punk still wrestle in the ring? ‘Can he be entertaining?’” Punk said (h/t Wrestling Inc.). “Fortunately for me, I was never a guy that did a whole bunch of crazy flips and stuff like that. So I don’t have to go back and try to do these amazing athletic feats. My goal is to tell a story. And the way I get ready for this is to watch a lot of Darby Allin matches. It’s no different than a sports team watching tape on the team that they’re playing.

“I watch him, I see what he can do, and then I get to get creative about it,” he added. “And that’s how I get ready. Obviously, I’m in a television show that’s called Heels that’s on the Starz network too. I’ve been in the ring. We’re filming wrestling. I have gotten in the ring and I have been training but not super extensively because it beats your body up, so I’m trying to be smart about it. But mostly just watching tape on him and I’m impressed by what I see.”

He also reflected on his appearance in Chicago, saying it was the greatest moment of his pro wrestling career — “That might have been the greatest moment, the greatest night of my career. Just the entire night couldn’t have gone more perfect. The way we set it up as the worst kept secret, selling out the United Center on the rumor that I was going to be there, never announced, never advertised. It shows the connection to the fanbase that AEW has, that they get it, right? They want to be involved, they want to be entertained, they want to go up to shows and have a good time.

“So we didn’t feel the need to beat them over the head to get a TV rating. And don’t get me wrong, I know executives at TNT love their ratings,” he added. “But to me pro wrestling has always been about moments and getting people to feel something. It was the perfect storm, the perfect night.”