Two decades after putting WCW out of business, WWE finally has legitimate competition in All Elite Wrestling. For all of AEW’s success up to this point, CM Punk does not believe Vince McMahon is losing any sleep over Tony Khan’s promotion.
Punk recently spoke with TMZ Sports and was asked about was asked about Chris Jericho appearing on Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Sessions this weekend.
CM Punk thinks it’s “interesting” that WWE is allowing an AEW contracted wrestler to appear on the WWE Network. He understands why the booking is getting buzz from fans online. He will probably tune in, but he does not expect any hard-hitting questions. “Maybe I’ll give it a shot and watch it, but it feels like it’s going to be softball questions,” said Punk. “I don’t if they’re going to ask Jericho all the tough questions and nor do I think that they possibly should… I’m sure they’ll mention AEW, but they won’t get into the hard questions that I think people are interested in.”
Vince McMahon Isn’t Scared of AEW
Many wrestling pundits have speculated about Vince McMahon’s motivation to put a spotlight on Chris Jericho at this time. Whatever his rationale, CM Punk sees this as an alpha move by Vince and a sign that he’s not concerned about AEW.
“Honestly, my knee-jerk reaction and opinion is that I think it shows Vince McMahon isn’t afraid of AEW at all,” he said. “If he was, he wouldn’t allow that to happen.”
Punk feels that wrestling has evolved and the old rules no longer apply. There was a time where it would be considered a foolish move to allow one of your performers to appear on another company’s airwaves. That rational was, ‘AEW is the only place you can see Chris Jericho.’ Allowing him to appear on the WWE Network would hypothetically dilute his drawing power. However, it’s a new age and both companies need all the buzz they can get.
Chris Jericho’s appearance on Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Sessions premieres this Sunday, April 11th on the Peacock streaming service.
