On a recent edition of his “Hall of Fame” podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Booker T discussed CM Punk’s position in AEW following the backstage drama that he has been involved in, most recently his physical altercation with Jack Perry at All In 2023.
Booker T compared Punk’s advice falling on deaf ears in AEW to his own incident with The Young Bucks at a WWE tryout in 2011.
During the tryout, The Young Bucks sat on Booker T’s jacket and did not shake his hand.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On why CM Punk giving younger wrestlers advice comes off the wrong way: “Well I mean, I don’t think it’s just — you know, Punk and AEW, just going back a few years when the incident happened with myself and the Young Bucks and the handshake incident; that thing went viral. And the thing is, they did shake my hand. And maybe they were intimidated in the situation. When I told the story, I told the story the way it happened, but no malice or anything like that. But then taken out of context to where all of the young generation may look at Booker T a certain way. I heard RVD had a situation where I don’t know if he was giving advice, but something happened. So I don’t think it’s just with CM Punk. I think it’s a lot of — not all — a lot of the young generation just don’t want to hear that. It’s about them and the way they do it and the way they want to do it. Hey, and I get it. It’s their generation. Those types. I let them be.”
On why he thinks the younger talent in AEW won’t listen to CM Punk: “The first thing I said about CM Punk when he came into AEW. I said he’s the guy they’re going to be looking to for guidance. He’s the guy they’re going to be looking toward as far as leadership. And he’s in that position, and when you’re in that position and you having bickering back and forth between you and the young guys opposed to trying to bridge that gap, it’s going to be that problem. And I say that because I was the older guy going into TNA. And I’m going to tell you right now, I had to earn Samoa Joe’s respect. I had to earn AJ Styles’ respect, [Booby] Roode. I wanted those guys to know that I was on their team and on their side, because look here. I made my money. People talk about when I came into TNA, I wasn’t making a whole lot of money when I went there. It wasn’t about the money at all at that time. I always say I was making more money on WWE royalties than I made my whole time in one year with TNA. No joke, seriously. So getting those guys to trust me is what I had to do, and I really think CM Punk got off on the wrong foot as far as that goes.”
