CM Punk On Chris Jericho Doing Steve Austin's Show: It Shows Vince McMahon Isn't Afraid Of AEW

The wrestling world was stunned on April 2 when WWE announced Chris Jericho would be partially returning to the company for a special interview with Steve Austin on Broken Skull Sessions.

Jericho is currently under contract with AEW, but both Vince McMahon and Tony Khan signed off on his appearance.

Karrion Kross Drops Cryptic Message, References Waterboarding Someone With Gasoline

CM Punk is no stranger to partially mending fences with WWE, having landed an analyst role on the Fox Sports 1 show WWE Backstage in 2019 after his tumultuous exit from the company in 2014.

Speaking to TMZ, Punk weighed in on Jericho's upcoming appearance.

"It's interesting, for sure. Obviously, I understand the buzz. Maybe I'll give it a shot and watch it, but it feels like it's going to be softball questions. I don't if they're going to ask Jericho all the tough questions and nor do I think that they possibly should. It's an interesting situation and it'll probably be a feel good interview where they talk about Jericho's past at WWE. I'm sure they'll mention AEW, but they won't get into the hard questions that I think people are interested in," he said.

Punk continued by saying, "Honestly, my knee-jerk reaction and opinion is that I think it shows Vince McMahon isn't afraid of AEW at all. If he was, he wouldn't allow that to happen. Anytime anybody is talking about you, it is good. There will be people that don't know AEW exists who will watch it and say, 'Cool, I didn't know that. I just thought Jericho was retired.' There is also something to be said about keeping your guys special and the only place you can see this superstar is on my television show, but it's a new age and both companies need all the eyeballs they can get at the moment."

Broken Skull Sessions with Chris Jericho is set to premiere on Sunday, April 11 on Peacock. You can learn more about how the interview came together by clicking here.

Elsewhere during Punk's chat with TMZ, he was asked about potentially returning to the cage or the ring. He said he's focused on movies and television right now and he's a little long in the tooth for MMA, but "never say never."

Triple H recently revealed that he spoke to Punk less than two years ago, saying the desire to return has to be there on both sides. You can find his full comments by clicking here.

If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the original source with a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.

Get exclusive pro wrestling content on Fightful Select, our premium news service! Click here to learn more.