It’s not always easy to get praise from Jim Cornette.
But CM Punk recently did just that.
Corny spoke about CM Punk’s return for the series premiere of AEW Collision last Saturday night at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois during the latest installment of his “Jim Cornette Experience” podcast.
Featured below are some of the highlights.
On the reception CM Punk got from the fans in Chicago: “So it was a huge ovation, and he brought the bag with the belt that he never lost, his wrestling shoes around his neck, and his first words were basically ‘I’m tired of being nice.’ No more Mr. Nice Guy for the Punkster, and this is the professional wrestling business. And he put over Chicago and the fans. He started the first of several times that he said what may be a new trademark, I don’t like the word catchphrase, it’s a trademark line for him. Tell me when I’m telling lies. Which might be something that he can use quite often around that place when everybody else is saying [sings] Tell me lies tell me sweet little lies.”
On getting the fans behind his opening promo without taking too many cheap shots: “So he said, ‘Some people some people hate me for the same reason that you love me Chicago. And I understand that the sheer magnitude of me makes some people uncomfortable.’ This guy, and then the fans start chanting ‘F*ck The Elite’ of course. Again, he is so brilliant verbally, such a cunning linguist that he doesn’t have to do the cheap sh*t that’s obvious to get people to chant derogatory things about people he doesn’t like. He can just make a blanket statement and they get the point. And one that got a lot of traction, as they say, on social media with David Zaslav, who I had to check on that one, but he’s I guess the president of Warner Brother Discovery media conglomerate. But he said, ‘David Zaslav calls me One Bill Phil, because I’m the one true article in a business of counterfeit Bucks.’ And that one landed, and he winked at the guy in the Cornette face shirt.”
On his promo working well with casual and hardcore wrestling fans: “And, you know, it was a brilliant, double-edged promo, I thought, because for the casual fan, if they indeed exist that animal, but just for the sake of logic and continuity on the television program, if nothing else. He talked about never having lost the belt, he talked about his tricep injury, tearing the muscle off the bone. He talked about surgery and the rehab, he talked about always being himself and never compromising. And he’s coming back to regain the recognition that he never lost with that belt in the bag, etc. If you didn’t know anything past what you’d seen on television, it was a strong babyface return promo in his hometown arena with a bunch of people there. And for the majority of people, honestly, that are into this company in this day and age, that do know what happened, there was enough remarks without coming out and saying things that he addressed that too. And with the pops that he was getting from the crowd, one would think that Chicago would fall into that category of being the people who were up on it. And, you know, again, he said, ‘For those of you who feel they’re owed an apology, I’m sorry, the only people softer than you are the wrestlers you like,’ and we know exactly where that’s going. And then a brilliant line was he reminds everybody when he reminded them that he had the, or that he won the belt and never lost it. He said, ‘Because I didn’t have the best dog collar match, I won the dog collar match. And this is mine until somebody pins me or submits me. And until somebody can fill these boots, they belong on my feet.’ Mic drop, boom. 12 minutes. He had them on the edge of their seats. They liked everything he said. It was well done. It hit all the right spots. And here we go.”
Check out the complete episode of the show at Omny.fm. H/T to TJRWrestling.net for transcribing the above quotes.
