Best in the World CM Punk

back live in chicago at starcast three and this is the one everybody's been waiting for mark what is gonna happen when this man gets a live mic when cm punk is at starcast 3. i've interviewed cm punk he's a challenging interview and i mean that in a very good way cm punk's a cagey guy if we're ever going to learn about his future plans it's going to be right here right now at starcast will he ever return to the ring will he be at all out tonight we're going to find out everything right now at starcast 3 on fight tv and on pay-per-view here in chicago would you please welcome our host for this exclusive blockbuster interview from pwinsider.com here's mike johnson [Applause] what's up chicago how you guys doing [Applause] so cm punk canceled i'm sorry i'm just kidding just kidding uh i've been writing about pro wrestling for over 20 years now i've been doing it for about 15 and a half years full time there are tons and tons of eclectic amazing driven passionate personalities but cm punk stands out amongst all of them you want to talk about a driven individual he started out right here in chicago with the lwf and supermarket uh shopping cart death matches and things like that rose through the blood and gut trenches of iwa mid-south became one of the definitive ring of honor talents and went all the way to the top of wwe as the longest reigning wwe champion since the early days of hulk [Applause] hogan he's had an amazing career and several years ago it ended like that but he's moved on he's done a lot of other things we're going to talk about that as well you can call him the second city superstar sec you can call him a second city saint you can call him a straight a superstar he is cm punk and he is the best in the world [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign and this is yours hello [Applause] take my hat off so you can all see me better so so you didn't cancel no i didn't i was i wanted to send out i told conrad this when i saw him today i wanted to send out a tweet that said i was too sunburned to attend starcast but i think with everybody uh constantly pulling out dropping off like whatever i thought maybe it'd give him a heart attack so i decided against it yeah i think conrad might have had a coronary if that went out yeah um my wife shaved my head last night so if you guys notice any like weird patchiness you know you can blame her so this is the first time in a lot of years you've been in front of a pro wrestling audience you've done c2e2 and you've done other pop culture conventions what does it feel like to be back inside the pro wrestling environment for a little bit is it fun is it weird so i think every environment is a pro wrestling environment and i don't necessarily know that's just because of me and my past and where i come from and everything but like um i'm immediately reminded of a couple years ago at the new york comic con when i got to do a panel uh with jim i hosted the panel for jim starlin yeah i was there yeah and so jim starlin obviously has he created like every single marvel character that you all love watching movies about jim has pretty much had his fingerprints all over it so like there was a very pro wrestling crowd you know what i mean like i was getting pro wrestling questions and i was like let's talk about jim because i was there to talk about jim and same thing uh hosted a panel for don coskarelli uh last year at the new york comic con and it was a very pro wrestling crowd so i just feel like no matter where i go it's always a pro wrestling crowd and i just think that's because pro wrestling is american pop culture i think at some point in your life everybody has liked pro wrestling all right so let's do some pro wrestling questions there's a million stories about you allegedly fox sports net wants you for their wwe show uh conrad has said straight up you were booked here for starcast you are not going all the wrestling tonight you're not going to be at all out but yet i walked the hallway today that's all i got asked is punk going to be there tonight ask punk if he's going to be there tonight there's always rumors about a wwe return no matter what no matter what you do where you go people are always going to associate you with that run in wwe so where are you going what are you doing and like what's life like now for cm punk where even after all these years it's when are you coming back is it weird no i don't think it's weird i think it's it's flattering um you know it's a testament to i guess what i've done um and the mark i've left on a business that obviously everybody in this room i i think loves i think that's pretty cool you know and that's when when are you coming back is always a lot better question than when are you going the [ __ ] away [Laughter] and trust me people ask me that all the time too so you know it's a nice it's a nice healthy balance of both so i mentioned a couple of these rumors and speculations that are floating around about you before we go any further we dive into the past and some of the stuff you're doing today you want to address any of this stuff aew fox any of this i mean none of it's i'm not going to be anywhere i i'm going to i ape was in las angeles for like a week week and a half so i haven't seen her in a minute so i'm going to be hanging out with her tonight i hate to burst anybody's bubble i'm sorry priorities it's like this polite smattering of applause they're like and you you know there's something out there somebody's out there going oh he's working us he's totally working us that's the nature of the beast right like that's the thing and that that's kind of what i it's a good thing and this is a bad thing about pro wrestling you know because a lot of people talk [ __ ] and they'll be and then you see them in person and you're like hey i knew like i was working your brother and you're like [ __ ] you like get the [ __ ] out of here i don't got time for that [ __ ] so when you left wwe in january 2014 you were in a certain place obviously unhappy unhealthy we're sitting here in august of 2019 what's life like for you now as you're trying to do these other endeavors like acting and moving on and being happy in life like what's life like for you now compared to the grind of pro wrestling and how much do you think you've grown or changed in that time i think the big difference is i'm in my own bed every night and even if that's not necessarily my own bed in my own house and my city i'm centrally somewhere you know like shooting a movie i go back to the same spot every single time and i can sleep and i can rest and there's there's days off and there's uh different things that help you along life for me now um is i'm pretty fortunate you know and that's obviously i think you know thank you to everybody here who's ever you know bought a shirt come to see a show uh bought a comic book you know i've i've been uh i don't like to say blessed that feels really religious um fortunate i've been fortunate that everybody has supported me uh so it's pretty cool i get to do what i want you know and what i want to do is hang out with my wife hang out with my dog um and you know again i'm fortunate enough to have people reach out and say hey you want to do this movie you do you want to write this comic book i think that's for a poor kid from chicago i think that's pretty [ __ ] cool well let's let's talk about the movies you got a couple coming out uh girl on the third floor which is the first film that you are the star of it's going to start to roll out in october and then you did the sasko sisters rabid the remake of the david cronenberg film talk a little bit about what it's like playing someone other than cm punk which i have to assume it's almost like having your own punk's probably like your shadow in a lot of ways a lot of you is cm punk what's it like stepping out of that and playing a different role it's fun you know i get to it's make believe right so i get to to tell stories in a different way and i used to tell stories in a wrestling ring and now i get to tell somebody else's story and i think the interesting thing about you know movies or television is a lot of the time it's somebody thinks of you and goes oh you'd be perfect for this um so far the two roles that i've had in movies the guys are pretty much jerks so that tells you a lot of what my friends think of me but um it's just it's a lot of fun you know i think the saskas are tremendously awesome i've been fans of them for i don't know how many years and it's just because i randomly stumbled upon their first film uh dead hooker in a trunk classic you'll see it soon on the disney channel i've never seen or heard of dead hooker in the trunk i highly recommend it and it was it's just very punk rock gorilla you could tell shoestring budget and these two female directors made this movie and i was just like this is great and i just remember tweeting about it and like it's kind of the fun thing about twitter right you get to connect with people across the world that you know really wouldn't connect with and it's just like oh let me say i love this movie and then they were freaking out about it and ever since then they've been saying oh we want to work with you and it finally you know the planet's aligned and i got to do it um i'm super proud of the role i played in rabbit i'm super over the moon proud of girl on the third floor and it's because of the people that i was surrounded with and the people i got to work with the directors the producers the writers the other actors uh it was a tremendous experience and it was super super hard and it was super difficult and i think anything that's worth doing is going to be hard and it was just so much fun i was just going to ask you especially girl on the third floor you are the star of the film so what is that pressure like where the entire set in the entire production revolves around you compared to work in a wrestlemania main event against undertaker or a big pay-per-view where the entire show is built around you and the success or failure of that match leads to how people look at the show so i obviously i'm not a fan of like anything i do i do and i don't know if that i hate my own voice you see in my own face i'm like oh my nose is crooked this is a disaster it's not true uh so the first time i saw a girl on the third floor was when it premiered at south by southwest which is kind of a big deal everyone was telling me but it's you know it's not really my world so i'm just kind of like well whatever i'm along for the ride you know and um i remember sitting down to watch it and thinking to myself 85 of this movie is like my face this is gonna this is a [ __ ] nightmare and i literally i think i sat there just like tense the whole time and uh everyone asked me afterwards i said well how do you feel what'd you think and i said i didn't hate it and then everyone was like whoa that's a super huge compliment coming from me regarding any thing that i do that you know and like and when i say 85 percent of the movies my face 85 of the movie is my face getting [ __ ] thrown at it getting it is brutal um but i'm really happy with it and uh i think one of the more fascinating things about it is everybody who's seen it uh across the board i saw one i saw one negative review and it was hilariously written and it was just a comment about me where the person said so-called phil brooks [Laughter] looks like henry rollins that was the negative part and i was just like that's pretty [ __ ] cool i was just going to say with your love of music which is pretty legendary i don't think you're going to see that as a negative yeah a lot of parallels uh people are are throwing out they see a lot of bruce campbell uh in the role and that's because i had to be clean-shaven which was the worst part of the movie for me was shaving every morning um they say bruce campbell they say uh jack torrance shining so there's been a lot of cool iconic horror movie characters that i've been compared to and it's all flattering i just the movie was fun uh and my october is going to be super super busy promoting it there's going to be a big premiere in la new york and there'll be one here in chicago i wish i had the info for you i think it's going to be like middle of october check his twitter yeah it'll be on there it'll be on there do we know a release date for rabbit yet like i looked this morning and i saw i do i do but i can't tell you oh come on yeah i it's so rabid rabbit just premiered at the frightfest festival uh in london big big 20th anniversary of a huge horror convention out there um and again rave reviews uh i know i know when it's going to come out and it's going to be wide theatrical release so everybody's going to be able to go see it but i just can't tell you the date yet they're they're they have a gag order and they told me and i i'd be a real big dick if i spoiled it all right yeah all right so one more acting question um in wrestling a lot of people stay within the confines of their public persona most of the day and they get in the zone is it that way for you on set or are you able to drop the character like are you like a method actor yes like no no i think um you know i don't know i think for some people they have to be method actors i think for me you know i was just i was reading the the script and it was just you know every day hey what do you want to do today what do you think of this i'd be able to bounce stuff and i was fortunate enough to work with such a brilliant guy uh the the director and the writer's name is uh uh travis stevens and he's amazing i actually accepted the role like sight unseen by i didn't even read the the script i just saw his name and i he produced one of my favorite documentaries called udorowski's dune against great film i don't know if anybody's seen judorowski's dune it's kind of a deep cut but if you haven't go [ __ ] watch it uh it was a revelation to me i was sitting in the theater i was sitting in a music box theater watching udorowski's dune and this is shortly after i had left wwe and i remember just looking at the screen and going i am uderovsky's dune and if you've seen it you'll understand that comment and if you haven't seen it go watch it if you want to understand that comment all right so let's talk some wrestling um it's been a couple of years since you've been in a wrestling ring i'm sure you don't miss politics or fighting or trying to get your way or making others understand your vision but do you miss the performance of it do you miss getting in the ring you miss calling spots you miss performing and having people react the way that they did when you walked out on stage today that aspect of it is there any part of you that still misses it or have you moved on i don't miss it like it's nothing i pine for every day uh and but again i think that's because i i was fortunate enough to to do it all so there's there's nothing that i go i wish i would have done this differently and i'm also not that guy either like i don't wake up and go i wish i could have done this differently or done this more or less um i so you know the hard answer is no and i i think that's the the shortest answer i can give but it's just uh i think i i think i did all right you know i think i had a pretty good career there's stuff you can go back and watch um i i'd like to say it holds up but i'm kind of out of the loop on the landscape obviously i know things because of twitter and the the pop culture zeitgeist it's always out there but i yeah i mean i i don't miss it because i think i did enough with it and i had such a good career in my my opinion i would say so um is there anyone when you're going through twitter or you hear through people that you're still friends with around wrestling that you go man if i got back into it i know i'd have fun doing something with them like a will osprey or kenny omega do you ever come across anything and go wow that's pretty cool and maybe it gets your juices flowing for a second is there anyone like that that you think about and go well maybe if this constellations were right maybe that would happen okay i'll give you guys a deep dive here um when that was so was it two i i don't know when i when did i i was gonna leave uh and i wound up resigning um and before that uh i remember 2010 maybe i remember being in i think san diego and austin was in san diego and he was just strictly there i and i can't remember why he was there and i just remember looking at him and being like now what [ __ ] it and i walked up to him and i go hey what are you doing and he's like what do you mean [Laughter] and i was like well you're here i go i gotta work a dark match after this i go do you mind coming out and just giving me a stunner and you know how else we gonna send these people home you know what i mean he was like goddamn yeah all right kid and you know and here's a guy and he literally was like i've been i've been back here i don't know how many times and nobody ever asked me that before you know and i was just like well why the [ __ ] hasn't anybody asked this guy because i was like i'm out the door i might as well you know be able to say i took a a stunner and uh i remember like i grabbed like all the heels that were involved he's like me our truth like everybody and i was like oh here's the deal guys he's going to come out and he's going to stun everybody and everybody was just like wow i think maybe miz was involved and it was just it just turned into a fun goofy thing where you know we like we got to do it and um i think that's kind of where steve uh kind of took a liking to me you know what i mean because again like if you never ask the answer is always no and dude just kind of would always be backstage sitting around i guess like i don't know if he was waiting for somebody to ask and so that's when i started like prodding him being like let's work this match [ __ ] let's go you know what i mean and uh there i think there was a there was a sliver in time where it was uh it was gonna happen and then uh you know the next minute it it didn't but so i kind of look at myself not that i'm of steve austin's caliber but i kind of look at myself like that now and i you know i wonder because i'll see people like uh um marty squirrel you know has this girl yeah did i pronounce his name right i always want to call him skrull because i'm a marvel comics guy and i know that's probably annoying to him but he's a super nice guy uh i did uh the c2e2 signing and me and him were like right next to each other he's great and i saw that he said he would like to wrestle me and i was always kind of like oh that's now you're austin what now you're the steve i mean maybe kind of you know but it it it's interesting how that works because like again i i i can tell you i sit here like i know who will osprey is um just because i don't watch wrestling i've never seen him wrestle i've seen you know the the clips on twitter of him doing [ __ ] and i just go jesus christ the wood you know like wow i can't i i'd be able to do something with that i can't do that you know but i i do think it you know it goes to it speaks to taking the initiative and like you know so like a guy like kim i you know and it's only because he put the foot forward i look at guys like kenny omega and i know he's like the big match um you know guy now and i just i kind of look at him and i'm just like i don't even know if i'd be able to keep up with these people now um but then again i i still i over train and i i try to bike 35 miles a day and like i overdo it all the time i don't know but there's no one person that like jumps out at me and i go you know oh that guy you mentioned uh over achieving and there was a time period where you were in wwe and you came in and the term independent wrestler was like a black eye on you as if it was you had done something wrong and you rose up in the ranks over time and there were a lot of highs and lows but eventually you end up in a top position you open up the doors for guys like brian danielson to come in and they succeed and now you look at uh we've come from a period where you were talking on tv about how you wanted to affect change after you won the title and you look at things that how every independent wrestler is now being chased down for a big money contract and guys are told go out and make a name on the independence and then we'll come hire you for nxt and you look at the whole the whole landscape of wwe changing where guys can go on vacation which is crazy do you realize wait what yeah guys can take time off seth rollins and becky lynch just took two weeks off and they're the top two stars on raw they went and got engaged i'm not even kidding not kidding so that's in part due to you so even though you're not there how do you feel about that kind of being your legacy even though they don't talk about you i think i dropped the pipe bomb on cm i don't know is this is it true you can ask for time on like yeah am i making this up would chicago lie to you and finn finn balor just left and took time off to get married too but you get married and you come home to legal papers [Laughter] but it shows how much they've changed since you were there i think a big part of that was you banging your head against the wall trying to break break it down i broke cm punk i'm sorry i'm gonna need some time off [Laughter] holy [ __ ] i don't know if i have anything to do with that and if it i do have anything to do with that it's probably because i eventually said peace out like i i've asked for time off ad nauseum you know and [Laughter] wow well good for them maybe they won't burn out and [ __ ] split then good for them good for them i can't fault anybody you know what i mean like i think that's i think that's [ __ ] great that if that's if that's true and you don't get punished because that's the other thing that's true the punishment you could get yeah they could still they could still be getting punished you never yeah i don't know i do want to ask you this because in all of the podcasts and trials and interviews and tribulations that you've talked about after you left wwe was there anything they could have done to change that trajectory like if they ran chicago and vince mcmahon showed up at your house yes hey pal let's talk yeah absolutely so what could they have done to keep you happy that's a good start to get what what would they what theoretically what would have made you happy at that point nobody talked to me i i was i went into uh their office and i was like i'm going home and they're like what do you mean you're going home and i was like i'm going home i've been asking to go home and like i'm not gonna make it to mania i'm i'm gonna [ __ ] die it sounds extreme and it sounds you know i i know that the people who don't like phil will be like uh you were fine but i for christ's sakes i mean ambrose ain't here this weekend why marissa infection yeah okay it's some serious [ __ ] and that's something i had that i didn't know that i had you know and i was like i just want to go home please please go home no guy we need you for some reason you know and so i went home and then um i got a i got a text like maybe four days later and vince was like you're ready to come back to work and i was like it's been [ __ ] four days like [Laughter] and then he told me he was suspending me for two months and i was just like cool i brought i busted out my calendar and i looked and of course i was like of course the suspension ends exactly like the day after wrestlemania i was like oh i'm being punished i can't do wrestlemania fine and then the two months i was suspended and then nobody ever dialed me up and it was like hey your suspension's up i wind up finding a check this is all i think i covered all this this is all retract i'm sorry but i i found an uncashed royalty check and i was just like calling him up to be like hey can i get this reissued it's a year old my bank won't cash it and then just nobody called me they hosted you nobody called me back and then you know i and then two days before i was getting married somebody gets a hold of me and they're like hey you know this this that blah blah blah and i was just like hey can i talk to you when i get back from my honeymoon which apparently now sounds like it would be a reasonable thing to ask for [Laughter] and then uh and then yeah magically two days later uh special fedex shows up at my door and i'm fired and i was just like all right what are you gonna do hell of a wedding gift what are you gonna do i gotta i gotta get married and i can't i can't deal with it now that and that's that's the way it happened so your question could they have done something yeah they could have [ __ ] talked to me so the talent of that is everybody who's had some sort of issue publicly with them over the years whether it be bruno san martino or the ultimate warrior anybody at some point they all come back and the narrative and the speculation is someday he's going to come back when's the last time you had any conversation or contact with them and would you even be open to talking to them about coming back and maybe not i don't think you'll ever be a full-time wrestler again but there's lots of things they could do at cm the persona i'd do it just to be like i'm going to need some time off [Laughter] found your new t-shirt this is so [ __ ] great you like sign a full-time contract and come back and on the first day be like oh i got this vacation planned and i gotta get all this stuff you know that'd be funny if if paul levac or vince mcmahon called did you take the call would you would you be open to kind of a conversation dramatic pause i would not talk to them um and that goes back to what we just talked about is i mean what what other on what planet in what other business does somebody suspend somebody else and then they like don't come get them after the suspension like why was it up to me you know it it it's just it's just a weird situation but that being said i'm over it i've been over it for a very long time you know that it's in the past um i'm i'm 40 years old and i i try to be as zen and as wise as i possibly can be and my life has taught me a lot of the times that uh i would be confrontational when there's maybe no need to be confrontational you know somebody cuts you off in traffic like really who gives a [ __ ] you know you're just gonna you're gonna see him at the red light you know and people people who are racing to that red light like i'm not racing to that red light anymore like um i'd be and this is the dangerous thing and this will be taken out of context and this will be um lesser websites click bait for the next week but i'll have a conversation with anybody you know uh but it's nothing i'm reaching like i'm not calling them you know but if they're like oh hey i mean i'll i'll talk to you you know and see what you got to say but it better be good so the door is unlocked but you're not going to be the person open is what you're saying i'm not like like i said i'm i think i had a i think i had a pretty good career i don't think there's anything left i need to accomplish um and you know there was there was stuff done under the guise of business that was absolutely personal that i've let go and you know it's just like i i knew that i know i know who they are and if they didn't talk to me then why would they talk to me now so like why is it it's not an issue in my life i'm just like well whatever five years ago uh one of the talking points after you left was you never got the chance to do the wrestlemania main event five years later is that something you used to look at as like the unmarked check on your list or did you become the peace with that and and how do you get to the point where you come to peace with i'm not going to get to that point so i think in wrestling culture i think there's a lot of there's a lot of toxic garbage i think um but i think it's like that in sports across the board i have friends friends uh who play baseball i got friends who play hockey and i think there's always that uh that push to be the tough guy and oh i gotta work hurt obviously in pro wrestling it's more so you know because back in the day if you didn't work you didn't get paid it was still very much like that when i was on the road full time i mean if i didn't if i missed a house show loop which i never did i wouldn't i wouldn't get a [ __ ] paycheck that week you know what i mean uh i i think it's 2019 and i think all these sports organizations need to address that um yes there's always going to be people who will abuse the system and be like oh you know i'm hurt like you'll see major league baseball reports like so and so out with pinky swellness and you're just kind of like oh all right but i also understand that if you're paying this guy 10 million dollars a year it's a 160 game season you know like his pinky hurts let him let him sit out the game against the you know the blue jays who cares like whatever but in pro wrestling there's always this this pressure and it's very real from the office about you have to make these shots and they make it this toxic masculinity thing about like you know oh you got to do this and look how tough i am and and i i think that's i think that's really really stupid and i think it gets people hurt and i think it uh i think it gets people killed i think it's it's a dangerous thing um and apparently you can [ __ ] ask for time off now so i'll be i think that good if that's true if that's true mike i think that's great but i still think they need to address other things like there should be a you know i don't know off season you can rotate people they got 300 [ __ ] people on the roster you know um this every sports organization every team should have a a professional neurologist on hand for concussions it's something that that i know they don't do uh they should have better doctors all right let's not go further down that rabbit hole um you talk about the pressure making the towns but i also think having interviewed probably thousands of pro wrestlers at this point a lot of it is also self-inflicted and self-pressure that was kind of my point about i'm sorry to cut you off but like the wrestlemania main event like i thought that was i look back at it now and it was like a [ __ ] it was a mechanism in my head that like it doesn't it doesn't [ __ ] exist you know it's just like to me that last wrestlemania i i worked it was it was evident that i was never going to get that last match and at that point i didn't care i just wanted to be paid the most and that was to some people even ridiculous but given the top of the card and like where i was i was just like no like pay me like if you don't want you know like you give me what i want or pay me you know and that's that's kind of where i was and so like now i look at it like i should have just been asking for more money the whole time well you're talking about the undertaker match in new jersey right yeah so there's in new york pal according to them listen i'm from new york i assure you it was not in new york i know i was there it was in new jersey the swamps of sea [ __ ] is two feet away um there's that urban legend and you kind of talked about it in interviews like oh what's next what's next for me but there's this urban legend that was talked about when that match was announced that you were mad and upset that you were wrestling the undertaker at wrestlemania is that true and how does a guy who used to wrestle for ian rotten for little money and works his way all the way up to a top position in wwe get mad or upset that he's wrestling undertaker at wrestlemania i don't remember being mad that i was wrestling the undertaker at wrestlemania because i think if you look at it um that the the whole streak thing was like a big thing i i think i was probably mad about the way it was presented i was just like well i just want everything and i'm involved in to be the best it possibly can be and if you're just another guy wrestling the undertaker at wrestlemania it feels like that's exactly what you are you're like oh the undertaker needs to beat somebody at wrestlemania here you are so my i like i had ideas to actually build it up and make it look like a threat and i never felt i was i was disappointed in that but i was never mad i was wrestling the undertaker you know i i i thought that was i thought i thought it was a good match i love that match you don't gotta you don't gotta clap it's all right so okay getting back to the the pressure that guys put on themselves and women put on themselves to perform harley race was a huge influence in you and he just passed away a couple of weeks ago unfortunately talk about his influence because there were times that you would talk about what would harley do as kind of being your mindset at times and this is the guy who was one of the most important wrestlers of his time period one of the last traveling nwa world heavyweight champions and a legitimate tough guy who beat up vince mcmahon allegedly and pulled a gun on hulk hogan allegedly and all these other crazy stories you hear about him um which i heard the vin story was true this week les thatcher told me that so blame someone blame him if it's not well it must be true i read it on the internet so that's it well on certain sites um but talk a little bit about harley [Laughter] talk a little bit about harley and his influence on you and what it was like learning under him i mean i wish the guy was still around um and this this might be this might sound really really cruel but the last couple of years weren't kind of harley so it's just like now that he's passed on i feel like it's it's more of a relief he wasn't surrounded with like a whole bunch of you know like i mean he's watched everybody go you know and then i i know the last time i spent a little bit of time with him is you know like he was in and out and he didn't know who i was you know one one second and then the next second he would um so you know it that's that's life right um i harley was kind of a guy that i never thought i would ever wrestle or not that i wrestled him he did take a bump for me though so that's pretty cool uh but i never thought i would work for him or anything and i you know my my buddy ace moved back uh to kansas city and it was he started working for harley and he wound up buying harley's gym running harley's gym i you know and harley would bring me in anytime he could and i i want to say like one of the first times i got to quote-unquote work with him is when he was brought in to do uh was it mid-america wrestling like a title tournament he refereed the the the finals and i was in that match and it was i just remember him being like uh you know all that one two one two one two [ __ ] don't do that [Laughter] and i said yes sir because he couldn't get up and down to count to three you know what i mean and it taught me a valuable lesson it was just like any time the crusher would cover somebody that was a finish because nobody kicked out on the crusher and it was like one of those light bulbs that he helped set off over my head that he didn't inadvertently explain to me but it was like one of those things that like oh i get it now you know every time i was on the mat like somebody had like high luck takeover he'd come over to check on me make sure my shoulders went down and you'd stick his fingers up my nose and his i mean his nose were just like his fingers were like gigantic so it it hurt it wasn't like oh he's got his fingers no it was like oh and they smell like nicotine like cigarettes like it was brutal and that that that was the same night i i can't remember if he took a bump for me that night or if it was a different time but that was the the famous story of uh spent all night in the bar with them and then i had to give him a lift in my brand new car back to the hotel and he threw up all over my car that's a good one there's a whole new generation of people who probably don't know that story but then man that's a that's quite the badge of honor that's it's very strange i remember at the end of the night you know like he barfs in my car and he's like hardcore about it because he's like throwing up in his mouth and then he's spitting it out the window as we're driving and i start to like pull over and he famously says as he chokes down vomit that's in his mouth don't pull over it'll alert the authorities [Laughter] i was like alright so i keep driving get to the hotel we get out my car's covered in puke he's covered in puke and we we walk him to me and ace walk him to the elevator and uh harley turns around he goes well my friend can you ever forgive me for throwing up in your car and i said yeah harley don't worry about it and then he went in and hugged me he puke he had puke all over his chest and i was just like yeah me and ace drove home we were up in wisconsin we drove home the whole way just like [ __ ] dying dying laughing that this happened um i got i got a ton of harley stories i got the one about the ultimate warrior which i can't say and if you've seen if you've seen dave chappelle's new uh new stand-up sticks stones you know why i can't tell that story um and uh harley used to walk around with a uh a taser not one that you could like shoot and the prongs would go into somebody you'd walk around with like one of those old school ones that just like made that horrible noise and he would shock people all the time i remember i i was always reading stories he would always do it to owen he did he did it to everybody thankfully he never shocked me but he would always stand next to me and press the button and it would scare the living [ __ ] out of me so i was always in fear anytime i was around him he had that taser in his hand that i he was gonna jam the thing into my leg and i'd probably pee myself so um i mentioned earlier you were one of the early definitive personalities in ring of honor and there was a time period where that company looked like it was about to fall apart and you and samoa walked into a ring in dayton ohio and he did a 60-minute match and the narrative yeah it was awesome [Applause] the narrative immediately went from roh is doomed to roh is great and you went on to do a trilogy of matches with joe one in chicago the final one in new jersey those matches don't get talked about or celebrated as much as some of the other stuff that you've done obviously the wwe stuff is on a bigger scale talk a little bit about those matches and the mindset of walking in knowing you've got this company in your back and you've got to try and fix it and make it better i don't know if we ever approached it like that i really don't really yeah i don't think me and joe were like well this is it i think we're just like yeah [ __ ] it let's just go have fun and you know let's let's tell a cool story i really want to use the headlock a lot and you joe is just like great whatever you know um i don't think we put pressure on ourselves in that regard um i just i just think it's like kind of like next man up thing there was a group of guys who worked for tna i was one of them we worked for roh and you know like i remember we all had a bit of a meeting and we're like we can't let tna tell us who who we can and can't work for and we all were like yeah gung-ho let's do it and then you know the next day so and so cancels offering of honor so and cancels out ring of honor so and so cancels our ring of honor and gabe looked at me and he's like you're canceling and i was like no no i i just can't operate that way like tna told me you can't work for them and i was just like i yeah i can like i'm an independent contractor right like no but you have a contract with us and i was just like all right but it doesn't say you can not you can't prevent me from working anywhere so i you know a bunch of other guys said they were going to stay and they left i stayed and then like i said it was like a next man up thing it's what happens in sports teams you know so-and-so gets traded so-and-so retires it's the next guy up and i was just to me i was like the next guy up i don't know if gabe ever looked at me like i was you know one of the main guys or whatever but i he kind of had to at that point you know there was like i said there was nobody left and i wasn't supposed to wrestle joe and i'm the one who floated the idea of the 60-minute draw because i was just basically like well if joe just beats me then he just beats me and there's nowhere else to go who's he gonna work with next so i think the idea of the the trilogy came based out of that and it was almost out of necessity but i i don't know if me and joe ever approached it like we were saving anything you know we were just uh maybe thankfully too young and naive to realize that like if we [ __ ] the bed there probably wasn't gonna be a ring of honor anymore i feel like you and joe had like one of the most celebrated wrestling bromances in that time period you guys are like peanut butter and jelly oh you know it just seemed like it was like one of those matches and one of those clicking of personalities that worked i don't know how close you are to him anymore i don't know if you still follow what he's doing but what are your memories of working with joe because i i don't think one you guys would have had success but i don't think you would have had success the same way that you did if it hadn't been for that rivalry and that friendship well i i think the rivalry had success just because of ideas you know i looked around i would always look around at the locker room and like the landscape and i would always be like okay what's missing what's nobody doing what's everybody doing i'm going to try to do the opposite of that um and i don't i don't take credit for for anything uh i think those who are there know like who did what um who's responsible for whatever it is i i think you can see my fingerprints all over stuff like there was a rash of 60-minute draws after all that and like i apologize for that um but i loved working with joe just because it was again it was one of those things that was it was easy it wasn't always necessarily um not difficult if that makes sense but working with joe was easy but did the dude would beat the [ __ ] out of you you know so not that that was you know a bad thing it was just kind of like the style we worked and he was a bigger dude that i felt like i i'm not the smallest guy but i'm not the biggest either but i could get away with doing more with him because he was a bigger guy and he was a better bass and i think that's another thing that made the the matches so much different is because it was believable that i could stand up to joe because he's not you know 390 pounds but there wasn't such a drastic like rey mysterio esque difference working with joseph peach you know hopefully whatever he's doing now is is uh is fun and good and i hope he's happy there came a time period where the wwe contract offer came and you left ring of honor at that point you were one of the top tier talents in ring of honor at one point you were running the wrestling academy you were the world champion all these other things the offer comes and obviously there's more money more fame more adulation bigger schedule was it hard to divorce yourself from ring of honor after all those years of working so hard to make that a destination for wrestlers and for wrestling fans before there was an aew before there were these other groups and every promotion had every city had five independent shows there was ring of honor and that kind of became the death the ev all rivers flowed the ring of honor and then people went from there to other places was it hard to let ring of honor go and move on because that last night in chicago i mean yeah i watched that i cried like a baby yeah uh and i don't know if it hit me until that exact moment that how much it was gonna suck because i was going into the unknown i really really was um and you know there wasn't there wasn't a whole lot of hope there was oh you're gonna get used the wrong way and this is that and but i was at i was at a point where i had to see what i could do um because that's just that's just me and that's who i am you know it's like you climb the mountain and you realize oh [ __ ] there's another mountain and then you climb that mountain and you're like man this is just a plateau there's more to go so i was always trying to go there and wwe in my career i don't think was ever the final final you know i i don't think i ever aspired to be a wwe guy i think i wanted to wrestle in japan because i think all my heroes wrestled in japan i thought all japan wrestling was you know 93 was like far away best wrestling of all time and i wanted to go there i got to go to japan i was like [ __ ] yeah i made it and then hashimoto tells me maybe too big uh lightweight uh not big enough heavyweight and like next thing i know i've canceled all my bookings because they're supposed to bring me on the tour and then they tell me i'm not on the tour and i was just like uh so i call up gabe and i go hey can i have that booking back and gabe is like oh yeah you know because gabe gabe was always inundated with that like karina would always be taking guys and guys would be cancelling off shows homicide low-key all that so gabe was thrilled that i was you know back on the show and then i told him i was like i don't think the japan thing is gonna work out and i'm sick of being jerked around about you're on the tour you're off the tour uh so i was just like let's just [ __ ] make something here um and i think we did make something there i think i'm super proud of ring of honor at that time because i feel like we made it a destination just like you said and it it's still going today i think at that time it was a destination for guys to go and not only work and get paid well but also learn and that's kind of you know like i wound up i was like i want to work with jimmy rave and gabe was like what why and i was like i was [ __ ] something about him and you know i mean you know i think he'll he'll maybe learn something not that i'm you know professor or anything like that but it was uh it was very hard it was very hard to leave because like i said it was just unknown it just just felt like time to go so you go to wwe you go to developmental in ovw and there's a story that gets passed around i believe at this point you might have even been the ecw champion in that wonderful resurrection um sorry not you just the the their their their perspective on it but there's a there's a story that floats around about at night with you and tony atlas backstage in ovw i wonder if uh i don't think you've ever told it from your perspective i'd like to give you that forum it's a funny story at the time it really wasn't i was the ecw champion i was set free from my ovw obligations meaning they told me you don't have to live in louisville anymore you can go wherever you want and i was just like cool i mean i might as well just stay here and hang out you know i would still go to the ovw shows every night just to watch and that day i believe joey mercury came up to me and he goes hey i'm gonna sign a tna contract and i was like really i was like oh good for you um so it turned into this is the last time we're ever gonna get to wrestle each other and i was like oh yeah all right so i went to danny davis and i said hey can i work a dark match and danny was like do whatever you want kid and i was like great i'm gonna work a dark match and it spirals out of control into this four on four tag i can't remember exactly everybody who is in it but it was literally like oh seth you're my buddy you're in the tag match oh spears [ __ ] yeah let's do you know like so just trying to have fun yes just trying to have fun um so i'm like i said i'm the ecw champion whatever the [ __ ] that means and i'm i'm alone in the locker room and we talk you know we're all we're all going over this match like uh mike cruel was in it oh he was so good i think cody might have been it i i can't rem i can't like i said i can't remember look it up and uh so i pull out my bag and i'm getting ready and i tape up and i'm exiting out my hands and i'm like oh this is gonna this is just gonna be fun it's gonna be friends you know goofing off but having a you know having a good time and uh tony atlas walks in he's like hey and i look up and i'm like oh hey mr atlas hi i'm phil nice to meet you what are you what are you doing there i'm like i'm just putting my gear on you know i'm gonna work uh work a dark match you know and he's like looks like you've got two broken arms and i just go yeah because i cause i got no idea where he's going with this [Laughter] and i'm just like yeah okay and it's that awkward and he just says it again he's just like i mean all that tape it looks like you got two broken arms and i just go well it's just a thing i do i tape up so i can draw the x's on my hands because i'm straight edge and i can see like this is just it's not registering i'm not getting through to them and uh and i after i get done explaining it and he's just like well you know what i think i think if you don't listen to your coach you're never gonna get called up to the big show and now i'm just like like i look down in my bag like the ecw title's there and i'm just like i said and i just went okay i'm all right sir thank you you know all right and he he he leaves and i just go man that was [ __ ] weird but you always hear you know like this is the guy i've seen on the mtv show hiding money from himself and having women step on his face with high heels on so i'm just kind of like i guess that's just how he operates so we have the match it's a tremendous piece of business it's great it gets over current ovw uh angles you know an old favorite joey mercury comes back cm punks back everybody's you know like we do we do good business baby faces go up everybody leaves everybody's happy remember i'm like dante from clerks i'm not supposed to be here [Laughter] we're having the post show meeting that they always do late wednesday nights and i'm sitting up in the bleachers with all the other guys and i got the major brothers next to me and joey mercury next to me and i'm honestly kind of half paying attention because they're talking about the television show and what they can do better and like how they think it went and they're getting critiqued and blah blah so i'm like kind of zoning out and then all of a sudden tony atlas was like well i think most everybody here was nice and i'm just kind of like sitting there just like that's cool you know and he's like but you know one person in particular was an [ __ ] and i'm just like sitting there going [ __ ] man that's brutal like you just call people out you know and i'm just sitting there and he's like you know some people listen to what the coaches have to say and remember you know and he starts talking about how he could bench press more than hulk hogan and how he beat hulk hogan for real one time and i you know and i'm and he's like you know a lot of you were really good you know and he would like go off on these weird tangents he'd be like you boy you remind me of tito but some of you are an [ __ ] and then that's when you know like joey mercury elbows me and i'm like and then i look and then i realize he's just staring right at me and i'm just like this is [ __ ] weird you know and he does it again you know everybody was great to work with you know and i'm gonna have a good report for everybody except for some [ __ ] and then i just i just start looking around and i realize my phone's buzzing i realize the major brothers are like texting on their phones like oh and finally i just stand up and i go are you talking to me and he like wigs out he's like yes you're an [ __ ] and i was just like well [ __ ] you [Applause] and i may have said i i didn't say do you know who i am i said you don't even know who the [ __ ] i am i said you don't know his name he called spears mr piers like he you know i was just like listen man like you come down here and you i know why you were brought here you were brought here to tell people not to [ __ ] do drugs and to save your money because that's something you didn't do i go and you're going to criticize me listen it's it's in the past i've buried the hatchet with tony atlas all right i don't want this to [ __ ] be dug up or anything like that this is literally like over 10 years ago we [ __ ] talked and we hugged it out but at the time i was like bro like i was like i'm the guy who just made it out of here surrounded by guys who are trying to make it out of here and you're attacking me and i don't know why and he started talking he's like i told you to take the wrist tape off and you didn't and i was just like dude and he was just like well go to hell you'll never make it to tv and i was just like i'm on tv i was like i don't have to be here i like why am i being punished for coming back and trying to help that was the last time i showed up at ovw it turned in it turned into a big thing it turned into a big thing those those who politically didn't like me loved it because they went straight to vince and they're like literally we're gonna get you fired i was just gonna say what was the aspect of the story i've never heard is what was the fallout from wwe management itself after all that well to go back to a lot of archaic dumb toxic [ __ ] pro wrestling things that that's what it was everyone was like oh man you're going to get [ __ ] you you better go talk to taker and i was just like the [ __ ] for like what why you know like that this guy [ __ ] attacked me like i'm not going to eat [ __ ] just because he's [ __ ] tony atlas you know and i just the next day uh somebody else who was very excited to tell the office was nova oh stooge i like mike i i [ __ ] unbelievers is way too excited about it they're like him and al they're like trying to get the major brothers fired because i guess there was some story that i didn't know about about the major brothers had wrist tape on and you know al didn't like him so al was like oh it looks like you're doing a tape fist match like just real stupid [ __ ] to just to get mad and yell at somebody for no reason instead of maybe trying to explain you know and that's the thing about wrestling is like those in management aren't really good at managing like they should facilitate and they should help and they should be like hey you got any questions what are you doing today uh you know what i see you got the wrist tape on and you know this kind of old school maybe it looks like you're doing a tape fist match but nobody's ever done one of those around here and they haven't seen it in 30 years explain some [ __ ] to people instead of being like he's gonna take this we're gonna we're gonna get them fired there's way too much of that [ __ ] and so like me explaining it to johnny the next day you know punk what happened i got tony atlas sitting on the tarmac the tamper international says he's not getting off the plane until he gets paid and i was like why what the [ __ ] does that have to do with me [Laughter] well he doesn't want to go to fcw and and get yelled at by somebody apparently there was a problem i'm like yeah there was a problem and i told them what the problem was and we ironed it all out and uh you know i remember walking into a locker room somebody somebody ran and told told the undertaker because they were so excited because they thought the undertaker would get mad about it and i would get fired i'm not going to name who it was and uh yeah that's uh it's it's in the past was it nova no okay no oh i did name dropped no he already name dropped him so no it was somebody it was somebody on the main roster who who never liked me and has tried to get me fired more than one occasion um so i i remember i go to i go to the undertaker i go so you hear any good stories lately and he just laughed and he was like yeah and i was like all right great we good yeah all right [Applause] so the narrative about you that always floats around is that you're this grumpy uh unhappy person especially in that time period was it unhappiness or was it that feeling of i'm fighting for my spot because i don't think a lot of wrestlers come with that mindset today especially in wwe i kind of compare it to nba players versus harlem globetrotter players one they're fighting to be the best and the other they're on the team and they know they're part of the troop and i feel like i never have conversations with wwe guys today where they're like i was in madison square garden and this was the gate or the crowd was that the crowd was down and your generation i think you were one of the last guys to be obsessive compulsive about that was what am i doing wrong what can i do better what are the houses where were they last time and that narrative about you was like oh he was so hard to work with he was such a pain in the ass he was a miserable sob but who says that it's just twitter some kids twitter stories on the internet that hurt a hand you know like so stories like you know third hand like so so my question to you is when you're in that moment and you're trying to better yourself and you're trying to raise yourself to the highest level you can in wwe how do you deal with those frustrations with all the archaic stuff that you just talked about and how do you not let it get to you and prevent you from putting together the best performance that you can and putting on the best promo that you can and getting yourself into the position where they'll finally trust you which took them some time i don't think they ever trusted me um uh and i think the reason i loved wrestling so much is because when i was in the ring bell to bell i didn't have a boss and i always said and did things in the context especially of house shows where i didn't have to run anything by anybody i would literally just do stupid [ __ ] off the cuff i remember when um so wrote road to wrestlemania i'm wrestling the undertaker and uh the the first week after i i won the maybe this is the genesis yeah so like i i remember saying this is a really stupid way to to wrestle the undertaker at wrestlemania i forget who i forget who was writing at the time but he got fired like right after that like whoever the creative person was behind that he was let go by the company like right like the next day i just thought it was a really weird like oh we're having this fatal four-way to see who wrestles the undertaker at i felt like a disconnect i was like it's kind of weird but whatever i'm winning okay like everybody in the match agreed it was like randy and big show i was like yeah it's weird like i don't know but i and then i remember being in indianapolis the next week and i was wrestling kane and michael hayes comes up to me he's like all right kane spike one two three and i just went huh i was like okay that's what we're doing i'm wrestling the undertaker in four weeks and you just what are you guys gonna beat me every week and he's like talk to vance [Laughter] all right so i go talk to vince and vince looks me in the eye and he goes i've been doing this a lot longer than you pal trust me you're going to be more over as a heel when you after you lose and i was just like okay at that point i was just like yeah all right not my it's not my [ __ ] you know it's not my company but it's still me and like i said i it was an uphill battle to try to make this match with the undertaker feel like it wasn't so lopsided i wanted to give reasonable doubt that oh [ __ ] this guy could beat the streak uh luckily enough um i did that wacky [ __ ] where i dumped [ __ ] cat litter all over myself that was supposed to be pallbearer's ashes and i think that kind of ramped it up yes it was cat litter yeah and uh it wasn't used like the one guy was disappointed it was not actually his ashes yeah i'm disappointed it wasn't really his ashes too um so you know juggling things that way like always sucked because at the end of the day i was like well you're the boss it's not my company but like you know not to get political i wasn't like well how about if i i'd be i should beat kane like it wasn't that it was just like how about i don't lose clean while i'm trying to you know do this thing it was just a difference of philosophy i guess you know and he he was like oh you're gonna be much more over as a heel and i just i literally i just remember just being like okay all right was there ever a moment where you think vince got you like not even after the pipe bomb and money in the bank with cena and chicago was there every moment where you where you felt like all right i got him on my side now no i don't think so um because it was always a fight there was always a conversation and i think that's kind of that's the juice for vince you know what i mean he wants to have those conversations and the personal relationship and i just i don't think he ever understood me you know what i mean like i just he never got me triple h never got me either it was just i'm just you know that's not necessarily a bad thing i i did what i could yeah i was going to ask you about triple h that's the obvious next question um when you lost to him coming out of all of the when you got super hot was there ever that conversation where you're like hey maybe we shouldn't do this or was it is this a city hall done so um that objectively was still garbage i remember he came and told me the finish and he went oh i tried to talk to vince um you know if you want to go talk to him and change his mind and i went you tried to change his mind you said i should win and he was like oh okay i'll go i'll go try to change his material and like that's the politics maybe that's all true you know what i mean maybe in their minds they were really like oh no yeah you should you should win and then go right back into retirement but i was like this is this is a bad idea and i'd like again no no trust me pal i've been doing this a lot longer than you and i just gotta go all right okay so when we talk a little bit about button the heads and the archaic stuff what are the good memories that come out of that run because i mean you got to work wrestlemania main events living color plays you to the ring you do the pipe bomb that everybody still talks about uh the match with cena in chicago is one of the few matches that i regret not traveling to see because it was like a perfect moment in time for you and it was a great match one of cena's best matches ever i think when you look back on it you know i think the way it ends a lot of people think about the ending and there's a lot of negative there what were the positives of working for wwe and the opportunities they made a documentary about you you got to travel the world you know you worked hard but you got a lot of things out of it as well when you look back on it now five years removed what are the positives i mean you met your wife there so there's a positive right there um but like what are the positives when you look back and you go that was cool well i think i always loved the old school guys you know and i i tried to model myself after them so obviously the closest thing i could come to being a harley racer traveling nwa world champion was being the wwe world champion at the time and traveling doing that um so that was always fun i i loved i romanticized the different town you know different different match different people i would constantly pitch ideas about shuffling up house show cards they always wanted to keep it the same um you know this billion dollar company i would be like let's you know i was a baby face so i needed bad guys i remember always pitching let me do you know 30 minute ironman matches with some of these guys like i remember saying swagger um dolph like all these guys and like michael hayes would tell me they couldn't figure out how to put a clock on the the titantron and i was just like billion dollar company yeah i don't but well we can't figure out how to put a clock on tight drop and i was like let me look at it i could probably figure it out you know give me a screwdriver that was so like those are my best those are the best memories like traveling with kofi um just having you know like i remember anytime i got to work a house show with daniel bryan it was like always super awesome and i just enjoyed working with a myriad of different guys who had different styles and you know in my opinion always at least pulling a decent match out of them you know so i mentioned the money in the bank match with cena which is probably going to end up being maybe your most celebrated match ever he's started to move on from wwe he's moving to the hollywood platform as well he's got a nickelodeon movie coming out did he ask for time off heard it no i think he just took it i think he just exited stage left and said you can't see me um i thought thoughts on didn't mean not to be a knock on wwe i promise thoughts on working with cena what was it like with him he was the top guy there um the closest equivalent to a hulk hogan in the 80s for that company what was it like working with him creatively what was it like that night in chicago and thoughts on scene moving on from wwe when he's been such a big part of their identity the last 15 years and you're going to get another michael hayes impression i hope you i hope you all enjoyed the michael hayes impressionate i wish john i literally i wish john was here uh just so he could answer that question but i always liked working with john because again it was it was easy uh and i think john was in a position where he was almost kind of glad somebody else came in and forcibly like took the reins i remember the first time i worked john in like 2009 uh and you know in wrestling the bad guy normally calls the match it's just kind of traditionally how it went and i remember locking up with john and like he was doing an appearance so like we couldn't talk about the match and i hated talking about matches anyway it's like john cena you know what he does he does the five things and like that's it so if you can't figure that out you know you're in trouble but and i remember mike kyoto was the referee and i remember locking up with john and like grabbing a headlock and taking him over and you know i'm happy just to sit there a minute and like kind of get the lay of the land and he started going travel drop down hip toss he starts like calling all this [ __ ] and i was just like remember just looking over at kyota and go mike who the [ __ ] calling this match and he he he's laughing so hard he was like trying to hide his face and john just went oh okay and i think i think john was stoked that he didn't have to be that guy directing traffic and i just he let me do whatever the [ __ ] i wanted so i think he was relieved but i also think that's how we work together really well you know because i was i mean you talk about i never like to take credit for [ __ ] um because at the end it doesn't you know it doesn't matter but i was the first guy to be like why does everybody always take their shoulder but like you know what the [ __ ] gonna happen like why do you let him do this to you without [ __ ] kicking him in the head so like it was really like i broke down the john cena come back like in a logical way and he was just kind of like this is great i don't know nobody's ever done this before you know [Laughter] and you know just working with him was was always great like i said cause he wasn't worried about his spot and i think everybody else up until that point was worried about their spot uh i don't think when i wrestled jbl i don't think he gave a [ __ ] about his spot um so that that that made it a little bit better but there was always there's always guys who were worried about their spot and then you know you know that they don't like you and you know politically they're against you so wrestling them was always pulling teeth it wasn't like that with john at all would you say the chicago match was your happiest moment in the company would you feel the most fulfilled that night no i mean the happiest moment in the company that's like really i mean that's hard to say i mean i legitimately did not sign a contract until that day like we didn't have it like vince was like what's the finish because if you don't sign the finish is obviously john up if you sign we have to figure out a finish and i was like oh okay you know and i got what i wanted and i signed the deal in the rosemont horizon and but i i don't know if it was my happiest moment you know what i mean um i was always stoked when i got to help somebody else have a happy moment that was always i think happier for me i think in that moment i think for chicago and wrestling fans in general is a happy moment for them it's a great moment for me don't get me wrong but i think i was always more stoked uh when you know like when ape and eve got to do a main event with me and uh dan o'brien like a raw uh i was always happy to you know do what i could i feel like in my career parallels with my life that i'm always like if i find myself on higher ground i'm always doing this try to reach up and like bring my friends with me it's because when i was a kid i never had that so i'm always empathetic to that and i always want to bring everybody for the ride i always want to bring everybody up and bring everybody along i always try to get my friends jobs i always try to you know work with my friends to bring them up if if if i'm up you know a level i'm always just like come on let's go here we you know like i kick this door in let's all go you know i if if you want to go if you want to go fast you go alone if you want to go far go together one of the things that defines you the most is your promos when was the moment when you realized all right i got this and because like i watch your stuff and i'm like there's echo zarate piper in there there's echoes of randy savage in there when and and the moment i knew you were a star there was the promo you did in ring of honor i'll become a monster to fight the monsters of the world you shot in the basement of the murphy rec center when you were doing the program with raven and i saw that i was like holy crap he's going to make a million dollars like i knew it right then and there when was the moment that you knew you kind of had that knack for the gab and that the mic was your best friend in wrestling uh i don't i don't know i don't i don't know again i hate talking about myself or praising myself so i don't know if i have that if you think i do that's awesome uh i think it's something that it was always there um from just being a punk kid and getting beaten up constantly but still always like running my mouth i couldn't i couldn't beat anybody up you know have fun with that one internet uh you know but i could always talk [ __ ] and like man people would get tired of punching me in the face and i would still be there like talking [ __ ] you know like oh your mother you know like whatever and i so it stems from that you know um and i think mid-america wrestling really kind of molded because that was when i really started the straight edge thing and to me it was easy because pointing at people and being like i don't do this thing that you're currently doing so [ __ ] you i'm better than you it was always kind of resonated and it's it makes people mad and there would be a lot of people at the shows who came to the knights of columbus because the beer was cheap and so it was like easy just to get these guys riled up you know and i just think it was always something that was there ring of honor helped a lot too because it was almost like it was formatted for television it wasn't an indie show at a a dog park or you know like whatever i had to kind of like reel myself in and i had time constraints um but again it was you know quote unquote almost like it was filmed for television so that helped me out a lot um and just i i think being open to different kind of music and movies and just culture and everything in general kind of broadened just my mind about everything so cutting promos based on where you're at regionally uh was easier and it just made the whole process a lot better you know it's it's fun to be able to look out in a crowd and see like okay it's predominantly kids so to know what kind of material you're gonna need to use and it was just something i just i always felt like i could be better so i was always striving to be better how much of the promo ability do you find yourself utilizing and acting because i don't think you like you did interviews for the ufc fights but i didn't feel that was like cm punk trying to talk people into the building it was a different cadence it was a different style of interview how much of maybe even the wrestling stuff and the promo ability do you find pulling out for acting because roddy i interviewed roddy piper once and he said wrestling is explosion acting is implosion uh you know one is more internal and one is larger than life and something's bothering me here i don't know what that is um for you how much of the wrestling stuff do you pull out in the acting endeavors i mean i haven't been able to explore it that much yet to really give you an answer you know like um hopefully in the future there'll be you know more roles bigger roles that i'll be able to do that uh but with the i mean i guess just kind of reading scripts like i've always had a pretty good memory so if i had to memorize lines that was never a problem um my character and girl on the third floor i think is is really nuanced so i don't know how much wrestling helped with that i think in wrestling you got to try to cheat and play to the cheap seats um but then again raw is on television so it was always about like the hard camera and you know focused on that so it helped me in that regard but i i character wise and uh promo wise i i they're they're kind of parallel you've uh you had the chance to do some marvel comic stuff including the drax series was it weird writing drax since dave bautista performs him like were you doing it with dave's voice or like it's just yeah i'm curious i wasn't because i'm a i'm a you know i'm a comic book nerd from way back so i was almost doing it with like jim starlin drax's voice if that makes sense um but no it was uh it was a complete trip you know being buddies with dave dave's playing this character and i'm writing the comic book like i i thought it was i thought it was super neat it's like one of those things the universe does to like just kind of be like hey isn't this funny you know and i i appreciate you universe [Laughter] um your wife wrote an amazing book um phenomenal if you haven't read it go out of your way um i know a lot of times when you talk about things publicly sometimes the aftermath is not always the most the most fun for you have you ever thought about doing a book because i feel like you have the most amazing life story coming from chicago and what you've risen up to and now everything that you've accomplished even beyond wrestling chasing your dreams in new in new ways there's a story there whether it's a feature film or a book have you ever thought about putting pen to paper in that realm writing a book yes um writing three books which i feel like my life story would have to be at this point that's a lot plus i'm tired of being sued so um you know i could maybe i could maybe skip things or maybe i would have to put the allegedly names or changed you know blah blah blah thing you know which which sucks too because i feel like we should all be able to speak about the truth but i also saw the hell that my wife went through writing a book so i don't know if i want to experience that you know plus she wrote a really great book and i don't need her over my shoulder going you know what you need to do and i'd be like you know okay i know you're the expert new york best time seller so wwe makes movies now one of them was fighting with my family the story of paige which is great movie if you haven't seen it it's the best film they ever produced they were filming one night in los angeles rock was there producing it was his film he went out to cut a promo for the house and brought up your name and i'm sure tara reached right i mean it's wild that people chant my name how long have i been gone five years that's great i've been gone so long and people have been chanting my name so long that people who never even saw me wrestle hate my guts [Laughter] that is a [ __ ] testament to what i don't know but all right so he picks up on it pulls out his cell phone brings up your name on the live mic at a wwe show and on a raw taping in los angeles in the staples center one of their major markets i'm sure tara reeks out behind the scenes and he pulls out his cell phone he dials your number why didn't you pick up i was in the elevator going to the bottom floor to walk larry your dog larry talbot okay yeah this is this is honestly got a true [ __ ] story i was just in the elevator no reception in the elevator my phone no messages i get in the elevator it's a really slow elevator like sixth sixth floor by the time it gets down and i walk out and i walk out the front door of my apartment building i have 87 messages on my phone and i'm like the same thing happened to me i think i think somebody's dead so i'm like oh my god what is going on what is this strange number and i just get like number after number on my phone just like answer your phone pick up your phone why aren't you answering your phone and i'm like [ __ ] who's dead this sucks so i get outside and i'm like larry's a terror so i'm like make i got to make sure he's not trying to bite anybody and i'm like walking and i'm like trying to look at my phone to figure out like what's going on and that weird number comes up again and i'm like i don't know and i'm trying to answer it but it's like not going through and i'm like what the [ __ ] is going on i had no idea what was going on until like i'm done with the walk and i finally figure out okay oh rock's calling me live from the staples center okay this is [ __ ] weird and i i started texting him like immediately after that and he got right back to me he's like oh brother i was like i tried to answer you know i was outside i was in an elevator it just didn't it just didn't work out did you ever hear if they freaked out as everyone assumes that they did like i can't imagine that they disciplined the rock but no and that might have been it see this is the brilliant thing about him this is how smart he is and this is why nobody else in this situation would have been able to do this like he recognized that okay these people aren't going to shut up they're not going to stop chanting for cm punk so he he goes along with it and it was [ __ ] brilliant because guess what they got their shot they finished [ __ ] thing and he created hell of a [ __ ] moment he made you know all the people in the staples center feel like [ __ ] yeah that was awesome it was it was a cool moment you know um it's just brilliant really it shows you what a [ __ ] smart guy that he is and yes i did i did hear i was it was part of the text messages i was getting a couple people backstage were like it's crazy back here right now there's a couple broken headsets there's shits flying everywhere i started getting texts and i'm like this has to be a joke there's no way this happened and then i look on twitter and there's like clips of him and i'm like oh my god they are not going to be happy about this this goes against everything that they want to happen at their shows yeah and it was great too because like me and him the next couple days like just traded texts back and forth and i was just like hey man you know when you were there maybe i was like a dick to you i said but you know like it's politics and like you know i don't hold any grudges and he was like oh my god he's like i came back there and like it was i was it was completely alien to me and i like felt weird and i felt bad like so like me and him like had a great moment based off of it too so it was you know it's positive all around why were you a dick to him i don't think i was a dick to him um it's a fair backup it's a fair follow-up question yeah it is it is a fair follow-up question when i was supposed to wrestle him now mind you i uh i wrestle until my knee locks up and now i need surgery and i was wrestling i think kane on a monday night raw and my knee that like that was it so i literally get on the jet with vince and hunter we fly to pensacola they drop me off they get back on the jet and they fly to wherever uh smackdown was on tuesday the next morning uh i have surgery on my knee and as i'm being wheeled out into a car to go back to my hotel vince calls me and i was i was dating leeda at the time and i remember being like you answer that you know and she answers the phone and she talks to him and she hands me the phone and he goes hey pal heard surgery went good we just announced on the website in three weeks you're wrestling ryback in a tlc match it's the first raw of the year it's going to be huge and i was just like for our viewers on pay-per-view that's going to wrap up cm punk here at starcast 3 mark news made here in chicago punk said it all scott but if you'd like to see him say still more keep watching fight tv for marc madden i'm scott hudson in three weeks and i remember when i finally did come to the next day i was on the phone with vince and i was like vince like my knee and he goes oh so-and-so came back from that surgery in two weeks and i was just like [ __ ] great but you know like what if something goes wrong what you know like there's is too much and to announce it on the website before you even talk to me it's a little much you know and then but again like choke it down be a good soldier that toxic [ __ ] oh it's got to keep going you know um is no time off just [ __ ] wild you know yeah i should have been like hey can i have a vacation yeah um but no so when i when i wrestled rock i i remember like the first time i don't know if i'd met him so maybe he'd been around but i i went it was in tampa and the night before it was requested that i go to his hotel rooms he's got the whole suite in this tampa hotel uh and i walk in there and it's him it's brian gewurz uh it's his assistant um there's like two other people in the room so i'm immediately like [ __ ] i'm outnumbered you know and i remember uh somebody who i didn't know who was you know part of his team walking up to me and and handing me my promo and i was just like buddy i was like all right you know and i and and then we start like talking and i i feel like maybe it was like a very hollywood kind of setting where like maybe they're doing a table read or something like that and like like again this is how this dude operates you know what i mean but i was just like well this is me and this is how i operate and he they had like all this stuff and it was just kind of a crash course of me and rock getting in in front of each other for the first time and it wasn't negative so to speak but it was very much like no this isn't how i do things and in him being like oh okay cool well this is how i do things okay well let's try to let's let's figure it out you know what i mean because if you say this this and this about me then i'm gonna say this this and this about you and then he was just kind of like well all right and i was like no offense i don't know who these guys are i don't know why they're writing material for me when i think this is the way we should go and so like we kind of pushed all that aside like me and him had you know kind of a one-on-one conversation in a crowded room which is [ __ ] uncomfortable but he's who he is and i you know but again i don't i think he respected the fact that i wasn't backing down i wasn't refusing to do anything but i was just like hey can we maybe do this a you know like a different way and he was he was great and he was fun to work with and i like working with him i just threw that out there because i was like oh he's texting me i was like hey if i you know if i rubbed you the wrong way you know i know we kind of had that little thing that first night and he was just like oh [ __ ] it water under the bridge that's all that's all it was all right that's a lot i know i'm sorry so he makes a lot of movies is making movies cena's making movies you're starting to make movies i feel like there should be like an expendables type of film with all these wrestlers [Applause] you mean there should be a movie that i pitched to the wwe almost 10 years ago like the remake of cannonball run yes oh my god that would be amazing they don't [ __ ] listen to me they never listen to me they're gonna do it now they're gonna do it eventually they do a lot of things that i pitched to them that they said no they can't do that that they do now but i don't care apparently they give people time off now did you know that i've heard it's [ __ ] crazy it's seriously crazy it's seriously crazy and i'm not mad i i i'm not mad but man hindsight's 20 20. if you just want to give me some time off they get time off but as this gentleman yelled out still no ice cream bars ah they'll do it they'll do it eventually they will they'll do it eventually how close were we to the return of the ice cream bars when you were making all that noise i don't know i never said anything to you about it i was reaching out to like good humor to like try to facilitate stuff like they don't yeah i don't know i feel like they could do it right good humor doesn't kofi have cereal yeah a new day has cereal there you go and pancakes pancakes oh yeah they come out with i i'm not making this up i cannot believe i'm explaining this to cm punk the new day comes out with a big platter of pancakes and tosses them out to the fans like frisbees like lannie paffo good but did they like sell them i don't they don't sell them they just talk okay i said okay they do sell breakfast cereal did they sell the cereal they do sell the cereal see that's smart yeah yeah there you go you would eat apparently not so bad thank you noted food critic um you know what you traveled a lot with kofi he's the wwe champion now thoughts on that yeah so along with uh doing um play-by-play for cffc some of my broadcasting duties nowadays i work for a stadium network i'll do a lot of fill-in stuff working on developing my own show and they brought that up i fill in on a show called sauce and shram when one of them is on vacation sorry uh and that i think that must have happened like that weekend and i was like there on a monday filling in for one of them and they brought that up and they they asked me about it and i said man it's so [ __ ] awesome looking at where kofi is because i know he's got two kids and that's probably just so rad that it happened now but my first comment was should have happened 10 years ago you know uh but you know he's it might be better for him that it happened now because his kids get to see and his kids get to enjoy and i think that's that's probably the best thing in the world for him and he's wrestling randy orton again so we're right back where we started bless your heart kofi kingston jumping back over to the movie thing you know you said earlier comic book nerd we live in this golden age now where every character gets a series or gets an animated feature or gets a feature film like i remember going to see like nicholas cage and ghost rider and just being happy there was a ghost rider movie now it's like avengers end game and all this crazy stuff there's got to be a marvel movie or a dc movie for you somewhere like i've always thought like you carry a lot of han solo and indiana jones and i think that harrison's board there you go but like is there a dream marvel or dc role for you like i know we're early on in the in the hollywood endeavors here but there's got to be something for you i i think what casey jones punisher anybody else is there any casting agents in the audience spider-man anybody i'm a little old for spider-man [Laughter] but the spider-verse yeah i could be old peter parker uh i you know logically i'm i'm a pretty pragmatic thinker so i try to think of like man what would be kind of cool uh and i thought being like a 2019 version of craven in a spider-man movie might be kind of neat you could be like weird like militia dude like wearing the tactical gear and you know it's kind of topical because everybody apparently has an ar-15 now you know and it could be tell me i'm wrong sadly you're not tell me i'm wrong i think that could be cool casey jones i feel like is uh is a pretty rad fit but i i think i think those are great characters i think that would that would be fun to do can i pitch a crazy idea i mean you pitch it to [ __ ] george lucas please all right so mark so they're talking about developing this as a series moon knight i look i think i think of you i would love to be mark spector um and it's that they obviously there's a lot of characters in the marvel universe so like i'm not greedy just to be in there like i would want to do something that was fun and made sense like i think dave doing drax like is just that's like one of those it's like when you're done with the puzzle and like there's that one puzzle piece missing and you're like oh no did larry eat it and then you find it and you're just like ah there it is and you finish the puzzle i feel like dave is like a perfect fit for that um i don't know if that exists in the marvel universe for me but obviously you know my my dms are open that's what the kids say nowadays and i think in hollywood along like a lot of other things i think it's not so much what you know it's who you know i think after people see um i'm talking like casting directors and you know directors writers and stuff like that once they see the performances i think more jobs will come my way and you know you know you never know i mean everybody's got a streaming service there's content that they need so we'll see i'm stoked i did two horror movies i mean as a kid who used to walk into like the local video store was mtm video and i used to immediately like just walk to the horror section and just be like what the [ __ ] is this i'm renting this and it's just wild to me that i was uh fortunate enough to be able to make these genre movies it's great and that time period was great because you can get all the you can walk in the video story see all the artwork and it's like what is this that's what it was and it was never as good as the artwork but it was still fun to watch motel hell look at this little cool town yeah so you do have a friend who's going to be in the dc universe cinematically john cena is going to be in suicide squad but i'm talking about is he really yeah he's going to be a suicide squad i didn't know that in the second one yeah but dwayne johnson they haven't announced yet but he's in it that's weird yeah so maybe you could text him and find out right now um but your buddy you're you're no no no no no he's not gonna text john cena it was a joke um but the rock is going to be playing black adam at some point oh should i call him [Applause] [Laughter] i i i just read online the rock's walking his dog um is there anything on the dc side that you go because i mean they're kind of trying to find their way with their movies is there anything that you're like maybe that'd be fun because look at the reimagining of aquaman nothing like the arthur curry character that all of us grew up with and it people loved it so anything out there i think you're the dc guy you know it doesn't have to be this way when i was a kid i it was very much like you know us against them so i was like a marvel guy so i was like dc blah it doesn't it doesn't have to be like that i'm here to tell you like we need to realize that like it's all there for us and we should enjoy all of it like right now like uh i see a lot of aew hats but realize that you can watch all of the [ __ ] that's out there don't let either company trick you into thinking it's a us vs them thing just enjoy the wrestling whether it's wwe or aew or nxt you guys don't have to choose you can [ __ ] watch it all that's rad so what do you see character i don't know could i could i put i'm not big enough could i pull off a lobo i don't know ah lobo be fun i'm just trying to think of the ones i like you know nobody's gonna make me batman um i think i think lo the lobo might work because they could hide my ugly face and makeup you know there you go what somebody yelled something what that's the dream right there hasbro makes an actual good gi joe movie like i get to just be flint or something like that all right you know oh they're developing a he-man movie you know are they yeah what the [ __ ] what the [ __ ] am i gonna do marco orco like that's not going to be cgi no yeah storm shadow there you go i do have the tattoo i do you know what no realistically i'm a dreadnought ah dreadnought there you go yeah i could be him you know what you might have been born to play zartan that is dead on now that i think about it put the hood on you grape soda and chocolate doughnuts yeah so we talked a lot about a bunch of different things today 2019 how do you define your happiness like everyone i think you're there's like i talked about earlier there's this assumption that at some point everyone's just dying to jump back into pro wrestling but you've had all these other endeavors and you you're happily married how do you define happiness for yourself after coming through all these trials and tribulations and what's your advice to everyone who's kind of going through that that that walking through the fires and life's got them down or they're beyond frustrated and they don't know their way out like what life advice can you give them and how did you get through all this well life right now is a little complicated isn't it ladies and gentlemen uh politically i think i've never seen anything like it i think it's interesting when our two-party political system is almost racially divided to where i'm at the point and everyone's gonna love this you know call me a liberal or whatever i'm just a human being who thinks if you think somebody is not as good as you because of where they come from or the color of their skin i've had it with you and i've i've always i've always felt this way but my wife is brown and i never never ever looked at her like that i've never been like i married a brownlee i to me i just married a human being right we're walking down the street the other day this is in milwaukee and a car goes driving by and this lady sticks her head out and yells go home go where you came from and i immediately am going oh [ __ ] am i wearing cubs gear [Laughter] i took my hat off i thought i was wearing cubs gear and this was a brewers fan and i realized nope no cubs gear and then i looked at my wife she didn't think it was as funny as i thought it was because i thought it was [ __ ] funny because i have never been that's my [ __ ] privilege right i've never been in a situation well except in japan once the little kids were running at me doing this but again but again i thought that [ __ ] was funny because it's nobody's ever used the color of my skin or like where i came from to try to make me feel bad so it doesn't exist in my [ __ ] head i i was like that was some funny [ __ ] and i saw like my wife wasn't so [ __ ] pleased you know she was [ __ ] kind of bummed and i think we live in a world now like i i explained to her like again i'm not a [ __ ] tough guy but i told my wife i said if we're ever in that situation in public and somebody says that [ __ ] to you i'm gonna hand you my car keys in my wallet i said and we'll [ __ ] we'll we'll deal with the [ __ ] on the [ __ ] nine o'clock news oh why did you why did you do that because i think everybody needs to be held accountable everybody needs to be held accountable and i think you talk about like my happiness that is my happiness my happiness is my wife and my dog not necessarily in that order sometimes but um i literally i wake up every day and i try not to start my day by grabbing my phone i try to just kind of sit there and just be like hmm i woke up today that's pretty [ __ ] cool like i don't have a set schedule i don't really have anybody to answer for except for my dog and my wife and i just try to do [ __ ] every day that like i said not only makes me happy but can make somebody else happy um i don't like when people publicly brag about charity and oh i did this and oh i did this i don't need to do that because that's not why i do things like that i do things because i want to try to help people like i said i always feel like i'm trying to reach back and and bring people with me and that's a cross that's like my friends my family it's my fans hey if you guys don't like horror movies you like me wrestling watch this [ __ ] horror movie you know come with me come on this journey with me so my happiness is related to that like when my wife's bummed when [ __ ] sucks in the world i'm very empathetic to that and i'm [ __ ] bummed uh and it and it just sucks that we're we're in this spot in this country where you don't know what's real and what's true but i think being nice to the person next to you on the subway is always going to be real and that's always going to be true and i think more people just need to do that and i think it'll be a better happier place like i said to to not make it you know political like the you know aew and nxt are going [ __ ] head to head that's that's a plus for everybody in here that's awesome because you guys get to watch it nobody's not if you guys watch one you're not gonna watch the other right you're gonna watch everything so let them pretend like there's some sort of war going on and you guys just get to reap the benefits i think i think that's great you know make don't don't fight other people because somebody with more money than you tells you that you you know you have to it doesn't have to be like that sure words never spoken so as we start to wrap this up is there anything that throughout everything you've been through and all the things that are said about you and all the experiences you've had that this audience out here this audience watching on fight this audience watching on pay-per-view don't understand about the life that you've lived or that the choices that you've made is there any misconceptions still out there that maybe you'd want to clear up i don't know i think um that's not for me to decide that's for everybody to decide you know everybody everybody in here everybody walking down the street everybody i've ever met they have their own version of phil in their head it's not for me to to live up to whoever that is supposed to be uh i just i try to be nice and kind to to everybody i can't prevent people from having a negative view of me based on something they read on the internet and it's not worth my time to try to explain stuff to me i don't think anybody should you know as like i said as long as you're doing something that you enjoy that doesn't hurt somebody else more power to you don't don't worry about trying to uh explain yourself to friends family especially not people on the internet and if i can make a suggestion just one twitter has become an infinitely better place since i found out that you can like block no no no um what's it called no uh like i like there's like a special notification thing where i went through and i was like oh i can do like so like people with no verified email oh if they don't follow you you don't see them and things like i like i've like put all these notifications on and like and it's like such a it's like such a better place and like you know so people are screaming into the void i don't even block people anymore because i don't and this is like i don't i don't see it you know people who don't want to like if they don't have a picture that was one of the notification things and i was like oh my god you took away the eggs yeah i was like what the [ __ ] why did i do this sooner but it's been a much much more enjoyable experience i suggest you all do that because twitter's not real life it's not i mean unless there's an egg in here that wants to say some real vile [ __ ] to my face how much time do we have left i think we're well i think we're actually over time believe it or not are we yeah i think so oh i need a video so unless any eggs would like so unless any eggs would like to step up and get their own pipe bomb i want to thank you for sitting down with us this has been a great privilege thank you me and mike actually go back a lot like i asked mike to to do this um mike used to host these bus rides yeah the bus trips yeah new york to philly and ring of honor and uh i would come on the bus and do like quick q and a's with everybody who's brave enough to ride a bus from new york to philly to watch some pro wrestling because i just thought that was so cool uh but i do remember one time when i was in iwa i emailed you and i was like we should do bus rides to ted petty invitational and you never you never really yeah and that's not never replied to me i don't remember it i didn't remember the email um yeah hey thanks everybody uh i feel like i was gonna say no no no thank you um i this is this is this is real this is real life like i was completely anxious coming out here and nervous because how do i fill 90 minutes and i kept telling people that and uh you know a couple buddies of mine were like dude just go live in the moment like you always do and just be you and that's what i try to do so hopefully nobody's disappointed there wasn't like a big announcement or anything like that um my my purpose for doing this obviously is just kind of to come feel like i'm hanging out with a room full of friends and i get to meet you all sign stuff for you and you know hopefully uh man i hate the word put smile on people's faces but i hope they give you a couple memories you can bring home and you know well true and i appreciate you for saying that thank you thank you guys i appreciate it [Applause] [Music] i'm trying to okay ladies and gentlemen i want to thank everybody for watching on fight.tv on pay-per-view and right here and obviously in chicago enjoy the rest of your starcast experience my name is mike johnson and he is the best in the world cm punk i'm going on vacation gm punk is getting his time off mark finally after all of these years what an incredible job by mike johnson and news made by cm i thought it was a tremendous interview i thought mike johnson uh did a great job as the conductor thereof and cm punk said everything there was to say it was just amazing i still don't feel like we're any closer to him making a return to wrestling but you know what that's okay he seems very happy and after all that's what it's all about we're not here to tell people what to do and i'd rather see him happy than see him in a ring again that said wouldn't it be great someday on his terms to see him in a ring again an amazing man an amazing interview i guess the takeaway is punk's not coming back he's not coming back tonight at aew all out he's not sounds like he's not coming back at all he's happy doing the comic books he's happy being a husband to aj lee's happy doing his broadcasting career he's happy doing movies well i hope he comes back to starcast whenever the next one is absolutely because it was a ball here at him and mike johnson operate up there and i got to tell you this is my second star cast start overall i think this had to be the best one yet i had a terrific time this place was packed for cm punk the interview the best in the world and i think in the future starcast is only going to get better and better and better this is it for starcast 3 what a weekend we've had mick foley earlier today yesterday we had tony shavani and jim ross doing atlanta wrestling memories we also had dean malenko who was hysterical yesterday uh so much more going on diamond dallas paige was here who else well it should begin and end with diamond dallas paige ddb no everything was great um the women of aew just tremendous uh i can't wait for the aew show tonight all out at the sears center uh one great match after the other but punk made a real good point it doesn't have to be wwe against aew against tna against ring of honor against everybody else nxt stirred in there somewhere too enjoy all of it but i don't think it's going to get much better than it will tonight with aew at all out we are steamrolling over to the sears center tonight you can't miss it it's aew all out it's kenny omega and pack tonight it's cody rhodes and sean spears so much more going on the casino battle royale everything's going to break down tonight at the sears center kelly blanchard as always as many years ago is my x factor for the sean spears cody rhodes match i just wonder who cody's going to bring to ringside with him because as we know he usually brings an entourage he's only allowed one person tonight chris jericho and hangman adam page going to go at it too it's going to be a night of history for aew and then we march we steamroll into october 2nd on tnt when aew makes its broadcast debut so much going on this weekend here at starcast 3 so much still to come tonight from all out thank you so much for joining us starcast 3 the biggest and best ever i guess we'll see you at starcast 4. well we'll have to renegotiate my deal but anything's possible i oh well let me jump in on that as well give me give me hudson's money he works cheap anyway thank you very much bobby heenan i didn't know you were back in the building that's going to do it for starcast three we're going to the sears center for aew all out tonight for mark madden i'm scott hudson we'll see you at starcast 4. [Music] you

Channel: Starrcast

Views: 726,383

Keywords: Conrad Thompson, Bruce Prichard, Eric Bischoff, Tony Schiavone, starrcast, conrad thompson podcast, Conrad Thompson Starrcast, starrcast 2019, AEW, Starrcast AEW, all elite wrestling, aew, aew wrestling, aewrestling, being the elite, the elite, pro wrestling, Starrcast convention, all in, dave meltzer, podcast, tony khan, wednesday night wars, CM Punk, Cm Punk AEW, cm punk starrcast, chris jericho, cm punk starrcast full interview, CM Punk WWE, cm punk returns

Id: EYOGbu94KeI

Length: 114min 58sec (6898 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 26 2019

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[u/luisBanks]

Drope the elite q and a from starrcast 3

[u/luisBanks]

Drope the elite q and a from starrcast 3