CM Punk, Adam Cole, and Bryan Danielson made their AEW debuts in close succession. These major arrivals helped AEW create an incredible buzz, even leading to them beating Raw in the 18-49 demo for a couple of weeks.
The straight edge star had compared this momentum to the time the Outsiders and Hulk Hogan made the jump to WCW. He had gone even as far as to claim that their moment in AEW was bigger.
Though after the backlash from fans, Punk clarified his comments in a recent interview with Sport1. He explained that he never said that the trio of himself, Bryan and Cole were bigger than the founders of nWo:
“If you look at the long-term effects [of Hogan, Nash, and Hall joining WCW]: it burned out relatively quickly. Five years later, WCW came to an end.
So ask me in five years where will AEW be. As for the comparison, I never said Adam, Bryan and I were bigger than the nWo. I said: The change felt bigger for us than the changes back then.” said CM Punk, “This is my opinion. Others may disagree, cool too. In five years you will be able to judge it correctly.”
The effect of the buzz surrounding these big debuts seems to be wearing off already. AEW Dynamite has seen big declines in viewership ratings in the past couple of weeks and Raw has increased the lead in the 18-49 demo.
Apart from this, CM Punk also talked about things such as future opponents he wants to face in AEW, his role in wrestling-based TV series Heels, and more.
The quotes in the article have been translated via Google translate.