Adam Cole and CM Punk are both looking at the big picture for themselves in AEW.
Adam Cole and CM Punk, joined AEW under wildly different circumstances, in the month of August. While Adam Cole had a great four years in NXT, CM Punk was away from the industry for seven years after having a bad falling out with WWE.
Now, both men feel rejuvenated in AEW and during a panel at the C2E2 convention in Chicago, Adam Cole explained how he believes that there are five years worth of interchangeable matchups for himself and the entire roster even if they never add another name from where they are right now.
"It's a very similar story to everybody else, but I'm absolutely having the time of my life in AEW," said Adam Cole. "I look back at my debut here in Chicago as the greatest night of my wrestling career strictly because so many awesome moments for me, watching as a fan were watching really big returns or exciting surprises. So to be able to say that in my career, I got to be involved in one of those things was really really cool. That's just on that night alone. But aside from that fact, I mean, just looking objectively, there's like five years' worth of stuff for me and the rest of this roster to be able to do because the roster is so stacked right now. The different options and different choices are different matches and ways we could go just have to be excited so I know if I'm really excited about it and our roster's really excited about it. I know you the fans are excited about it, too."
CM Punk agreed with Adam Cole that there is about five years’ worth of matches for himself as well, going so far as to say he would see both Adam Cole and Adam Page in the future.
"Yeah, I think that's one matchup that everybody wanted to see. Before I even came back, I always heard about, 'I want to see MJF and CM Punk go back and forth,' and a lot of people think I am off to a slow start in AEW, you know, I'm doing certain things a certain way. But to me, just like Adam Cole said, there is five years worth of stuff with all these interchangeable characters and players. MJF is definitely somebody I wanted to share a ring with. Yeah, and I think now that we're getting to it, I think people kind of can maybe see the bigger picture, and they can trust AEW as a whole for the direction of where stuff goes. The fans. I understand they want to know the behind-the-scenes stuff, they want to peel back the curtain and everybody's an armchair booker. I am. Everybody's an armchair, you know, coach or quarterback or whatever. That's human nature... it's no different than, I think, pro wrestling fans and stuff like that."
"But to me, one of the best things about AEW is we enjoy payoffs. We like making the fans happy instead of just for some reason, making them miserable and doing stuff just to piss them off. Sometimes, the happiest outcome, yes, is the most obvious one, we don't really feel the need to beat anybody over the head with switching it just because they figured it out first. I enjoy making the fans happy. I think that's one of the biggest — that's juice for being a pro wrestler is getting reactions out of the crowd. You know, and when it comes to me and MJF, without me trying to say anything too positive about him, you ain't seen nothing yet."
Punk later added, "As far as me, I think that's one of the reasons I came to AEW because there's intriguing matchups there were seven years I was gone and in those seven years, the people that rose up through indies, Ring of Honor, New Japan, whatever. Those are the intriguing matchups to me so it's Young Bucks, it's Kenny Omega, there's so many guys though, you know in AEW that I've never wrestled. There's a few that I have a history with that I will eventually get back to, like Bryan Danielson, but it's a big reason why I came back. Those interesting matchups. Those never before, you know, in the ring things like me and MJF and you know, eventually. I'll see you soon, Hangman, I'm sure. Adam Cole, I'm sure I'll see you soon, too. That's why I'm here."
For now, all eyes in AEW are focused on Winter is Coming which will take place on Wednesday, December 15, 2021. We will have live coverage beginning at 8 p.m. eastern time on Wednesday night.
Elsewhere in the panel, Adam Cole discussed the potential of Kyle O'Reilly joining him and Bobby Fish in AEW. Read his comment on that matter here.
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