CM Punk comments on his mindset behind spray-painting an “x’ on his AEW World Championship.
Punk has been carrying the AEW World Championship around with him and calling himself the “real” world champion. He claims that he never lost the gold, so he is the rightful champion.
Speaking with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated, Punk discussed the reason he spray-painted an X on the title. He first recalled the early days in his wrestling career. Specifically, he recalled how a friend encouraged him to lean into his straight-edge lifestyle for his character.
“I had not done this straight edge gimmick yet,” said Punk. “I was racking my brain to come up with a great idea, and I remember my girlfriend at the time, Natalie Slater, who is still to this day a great friend of mine, pointed out the pot of gold was right under my nose.
“She was like, ‘Why don’t you just be you? Why don’t you just be straight edge?’ All credit to her. That’s where it was born.”
Punk then emphasized that a lot of people in wrestling are in the business because of him. Likewise, plenty of people are straight-edge because of him, and he wanted to recognize that.
“That’s why I tape my wrists, that’s why I X-up my hands, and that’s where ‘Straight edge means I’m better than you’ comes from,” Punk said. “Looking back on it now, there’s a lot of people I currently work with who are not only wrestlers because of me–their words–they’re straight edge because of me. It’s time to go back to that. Look how powerful it is. That’s a nice itch I get to scratch now.”
Punk reportedly apologized to Hangman Page for his post-show promo after the August 11 episode of AEW Collision. More information is available here.
