AEW superstar CM Punk recently appeared on the AEW Unrestricted podcast to discuss working with Team Taz member Powerhouse Hobbs, a rising talent that Punk says impresses him quite a bit. During the interview the Chicago Savior also touches on his signature stage dives that he’s done since returning to wrestling in August. Highlights can be found below.
Why he wanted to work with Powerhouse Hobbs:
We’ll peel back the curtain a little bit here which it is what it is. I think I need to show a very — just different looks, right? I didn’t dream in my wildest imagination I could be this big of a babyface so to speak. But it’s pretty crazy and I think we need to ride the wave and I never liked baby-baby matches. I always felt like somebody needs to be the heel a little bit and I don’t have any of that. With Will Hobbs, I got a guy that’s gonna knock my dick in the dirt and I’m gonna get to sell. I just hope there’s some kids in the back watching that go, ‘Oh wow. It’s cool to sell’, you know? Because I just think of Ricky Steamboat, one of the best sellers of all-time and just the way he — it was an art and really trying to make some simplistic stuff and get the most out of very little and I’ve been impressed with Will Hobbs. You know, the way he moves and I think anybody can see that he has potential, you know?
On doing his signature stage dives into the crowd:
Yeah, they’ve talked to me about it [jumping into the crowd]. They lean towards trying to tell me not to do it, but they’re also kind of like, ‘Is this gonna be a thing? Can we maybe not?’ And I go, ‘Guys, I really — I don’t know. I just go out there’ and the last time I did it in New Jersey, there was a dude who was just like, ‘I’m gonna catch you’ and I was like, ‘Okay. Let’s do the [dive]’, so I did it. It’s all spur of the moment. It really is honestly.
(H/T and transcribed by Post Wrestling)