CM Punk Says Old-Time Veterans Love Him, Shares Why His Contemporaries Don’t

Last week’s AEW Collision main event saw CM Punk retain the ‘Real AEW World Championship’ against Ricky Starks, with the legendary Ricky Steamboat serving as a special guest enforcer.

Ahead of show, Punk, in an interview with Sports Illustrated, reflected on working with ‘The Dragon’ in a similar capacity back in 2004, when he faced AJ Styles in Ring of Honor. Punk lost the match to Styles, before trying to attack Steamboat, who fought back and took him down, forcing him to retreat (check out the clip here).

Punk highlighted an interesting point as to how most old-time wrestlers appreciate and love him to death, while his own contemporaries don’t like him as much, perhaps due to inherent competition and envy they may share. Punk said,

“I was pretty ecstatic. It’s always been strange to me that the old-timers would embrace me and love me as much as they have. A lot of my contemporaries didn’t like me, but the people that they idolized loved me to death–like Harley [Race], Dusty [Rhodes], Terry Funk, Ricky Steamboat, Steve Keirn. My contemporaries were worried about losing a spot. But the old guys loved me. And my love for them was very genuine, and it still is. That’s why I’m working with Ricky Steamboat on Saturday.”

On Saturday, 19 years removed from ROH 2004, we saw things kind of come full circle as Ricky Starks attacked Steamboat after his loss as well, only for Punk to make the save.

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