CM Punk Explains Why He Made the John Cena References During AEW Full Gear

By Connor Casey

CM Punk's victory over Eddie Kingston at Full Gear on Saturday night came with a number of unexpected references to one of Punk's biggest rivals, John Cena. Punk, who many fans thought was playing the role of Cena in the feud given he's the established star going up against the loudmouth anti-establishment rogue, broke out a few of Cena's infamous "Five Moves of Doom" and even teased nailing a Five Knickle Shuffle before staring directly into the camera. 

Punk was asked why he was suddenly paying homage to Cena in the post-show press conference. Simply put, Punk was just messing with people. 

"I have one boss when I'm in the ring, right? I often like to say I have no boss when I'm in the ring but the truth is (it's) the people," Punk said (h/t Cageside Seats). "I listen to them. And sometimes I go with the flow and I let them take me places and sometimes, you know, regardless of the seven-year gap, I've been doing this a minute. I know what I'm doing. For me, it's fun just to f— with people. That's the whole juice for me, right? It's getting reactions, it's getting different reactions and getting to play with that."

The end of the match saw Punk repeatedly nail Kingston with elbow and knee strikes before nailing the GTS, though he took a moment to notice the crowd in Minneapolis was heavily cheering for Kingston by that point. AEW president Tony Khan compared the fan reaction to that of WrestleMania X8 when the crowd started siding with Hollywood Hogan over The Rock. 

"I remember being the only person out of 70,000 cheering for The Rock in Toronto," Khan said (h/t Wrestling Inc.). "My friend looked over me like, 'what are you doing?' And I was like, 'somebody has to.' And that's how I felt about Punk getting booed tonight (vs. Kingston). There were way, way, way more Punk people tonight than there were Rock people in Toronto, though. I can attest as I was there for both shows. ...I've seen what it's like when someone makes the choice in the building."

Check out the full results from Full Gear below!

  • (Buy-In) Thunder Rosa & Hikaru Shida def. Jamie Hayter & Nyla Rose
  • MJF def. Darby Allin
  • AEW World Tag Team Championships: Lucha Brothers def. FTR
  • AEW World Championship Eliminator Tournament: Bryan Danielson def. Miro
  • Christian Cage & Jurassic Express def. Adam Cole & The Young Bucks (Falls Count Anywhere)
  • Cody Rhodes & PAC def. Malakai Black & Andrade El Idolo
  • AEW Women's World Championship: Dr. Britt Baker def. Tay Conti
  • CM Punk def. Eddie Kingston
  • The Inner Circle def. Men of the Year & American Top Team (Minneapolis Street Fight
  • AEW World Championship: Hangman Page def. Kenny Omega
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