CM Punk was a guest on the latest Sneaker Shopping episode over on Complex’s YouTube channel. The All Elite Wrestling star and former WWE Champion admits upfront that he’s never been much of a sneakerhead, though he was in Chicago during Michael Jordan’s run with the Chicago Bulls and the explosion in popularity his line of Nikes had. Punk admitted he grew up too poor to ever afford Jordans, but mentioned that even back then they were a status symbol.
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Elsewhere in the interview he openly admitted that he wrote letters on the bottom of his Vans during his early AEW appearances simply to mess with fans and talked about the similarities sneaker culture now has to the comic book industry of the 90s while he was working at a local comic book shop. You can see the full interview below.
As for his purchases, Punk wound up being a pair of Jordan 1 Black/Red and a Jordan 1 Varsity Red and came away with a price tag of $1848. He then joked about this being his first major sneaker purchase.
Punk made his shocking debut in AEW last month and has since wrestled Darby Allin (at All Out) and Powerhouse Hobbs (at AEW Grand Slam). He cut a promo on the most recent episode of Rampage saying it’s unknown what he’ll do next.
In his numerous interviews, Punk has been nothing but positive about his new home promotion. He even went so far as to say the company’s recent signings (himself, Bryan Danielson and Adam Cole) eclipse WCW buying up WWF’s main eventers back in the mid-90s.
“Obviously I think (tonight) is going to be very impactful,” Punk said. “I’m not personally in the business of a war or competing. I know who the competition is and who the competition isn’t. To me, we focus on ourselves, we focus on the talent we have and we focus on the people in the building and I think that’s how we grow. It’s not about throwing stones and I know TNT loves ratings and I know everybody’s going to look at stuff and compare the two. For a company that’s only been around for two years, I think they’re doing great. And we’re competing with somebody on another night who got a 30-year head start. But to me, our competition is our audience. And as long as we keep them engaged and keep them happy, and that’s what we’re doing.
“I’m not (Hulk) Hogan, I’m not (Randy) Savage. Daniel Bryan and Adam Cole, they’re not The Outsiders. I see the parallels, this is totally different. And I’ll go ahead and say it, people can quote me and they’ll be pissed off about it, to me this is bigger,” he continued.
