CM Punk On How Bryan Danielson & Adam Cole AEW Debuts Compare to Scott Hall & Kevin Nash WCW Debuts

CM Punk commented on the AEW (All Elite Wrestling) debuts of Bryan Danielson (Daniel Bryan) and Adam Cole at AEW All Out on Sunday night in the post-show media scrum, proclaiming Danielson and Cole’s debuts as “bigger” to him than the legendary WCW debuts of Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, and said that with so many potentially great opponents for him to face in AEW, he feels like it’s Christmas and he has so many great presents to open. His comments are below (h/t Fightful).

On Danielson and Cole debuting in AEW and having so many potentially great opponents for him to face: “I mean, you know, pardon my lewdness, but I got a boner for that. Honestly, like, you know, I feel everybody has their own journey and their own story and their own experiences of where we used to work. You know, but I heard him say. I left and I don’t got a lot of good things to say, he left [Bryan] and he says he loved the place. But what does it mean when you love that place but you still don’t want to be there. You want to be here. I think that speaks volumes. Adam Cole is a guy that I’ve never wrestled and I know I’m going to sometime. I look forward to it. Daniel Bryan is a guy I have wrestled and I feel like that’ll happen somewhere down the line too. It’s like at Christmas. You know, I unwrap a gift, I don’t know what’s in it. It could be Adam Cole, could be Daniel Bryan, could be Kenny Omega, could be the Young Bucks, could be Will Hobbs, could be Ricky Starks. I mean it’s just endless, I am so happy right now.”

On how impactful Danielson and Cole’s debuts are for AEW and the larger wrestling world: “Obviously, I think it’s going to be very impactful. I’m not personally in the business of war or competing. I know who the competition is and who the competition isn’t. To me, we focus on ourselves. We focus on the talent. We focus on the people in the building and I think that’s how we grow. It’s not about throwing stones and I know TNT loves ratings and I know everybody’s going to look at that stuff and compare that. For a company that’s only been around for two years, I think they’re doing great. If you’re competing with somebody on another night that’s got a 30-year headstart, that’s fine. But to me, our competition is our audience. As long as we keep them engaged and keep them happy, and I think that, to bring it back around, that’s what we’re doing. So, I’m not Hogan or Savage. Daniel Bryan and Adam Cole, they’re not The Outsiders, I see the parallels, but this is totally different. I’ll go ahead and say it and people can quote me and they’ll be pissed off about it, but to me, this is bigger.”

AEW All Out also featured Kenny Omega defeating Impact Wrestling Champion Christian Cage in the main event to retain the AEW World Championship, Chris Jericho defeating MJF, and the AEW debut of another former WWE star, Ruby Soho. Many are already calling the show one of the greatest in the history of professional wrestling. Check out our complete AEW All Out results for the rest of the results. This sets up a highly anticipated episode of AEW Dynamite on Wednesday and raises the question of how WWE will respond on WWE television (Smackdown and WWE RAW) after countering CM Punk debuting on AEW Rampage with Brock Lesnar returning at Summerslam. Cole said after All Out that he himself was surprised when he realized his WWE contract was expiring as soon as it did, paving the way for a new deal with AEW.

411’s Blake Lovell discusses Bryan Danielson and Adam Cole making their AEW debuts, why them leaving WWE is so significant, and more in our latest podcast. Listen below. The AEW fan base certainly has a lot to chew on this week.

*Intro
*2:19 Thoughts on CM Punk vs. Darby Allin
*14:51 Bryan Danielson and Adam Cole debut
*23:01 The significance of Danielson and Cole leaving WWE for AEW