During a recent edition of his “Wrestling With Freddie” podcast, former WWE writer Freddie Prinze Jr. critiqued CM Punk’s explosive promo on the premiere episode of AEW Collision last week.
Prinze felt the promo was “a little off” and not Punk’s best mic work. The former WWE writer also noted that the promo wasn’t mic-drop worthy.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On CM Punk’s return promo: “I wanted to love this promo. I think CM Punk is one of the best to ever speak into a microphone, ‘best’ being a very short list. Maybe four dudes. I guess if you didn’t see the ESPN interview, then it’s a great promo. But if you did see the ESPN interview, he kept asking me to call out the lie and there were at least three of them. I don’t know if the ESPN interview was out of character and this is in character, but he floats the line, so it’s harder to tell. I don’t want to talk smack or anything like that, but it was just weird to me… He structured the promo beautifully. The promo kicks ass. I’m just answering his question. He challenged us to find the lie, so I’m finding the lies.”
On CM Punk hijacking the Adam Cole vs. MJF storyline: “The final thing was that this business is for adults. It’s the professional wrestling business. And I agree 100%. But to go out there and essentially hijack the world championship storyline away from Adam Cole, who just came back from a concussion and is in the middle of a storyline with MJF seemed to me like going into business for himself and not going along with the storyline, which is specifically what he’s so against.”
WWE Hall of Famer Bully Ray also critiqued Punk’s promo during a recent edition of Busted Open Radio.
Ray critiqued Punk for his remarks in his recent interview with ESPN and his comments regarding his backstage heat with The Elite.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On a potential CM Punk vs. Hangman Page rematch: “Do I think we’re ever gonna see Punk vs Hangman Page? Yes, I think eventually cooler heads will prevail. I think hopefully, once Punk gets along, plays nice, time heals all wounds, the right people in their ear –- [Chris] Jericho maybe doing what Jericho does best, which is bring people together. [He can] talk to these guys, maybe Mark Henry talks to these guys. Eventually [it will happen]. Short-term no, long-term yes.”
On how Punk should’ve told Punk not to say anything about about it: “This all begins and ends with Tony as the boss. If this wasn’t eventually gonna happen, Tony should have said to Punk ‘Don’t you say a f***ing word’.
