Cody Rhodes Gives Details About All In Being Pitched To CM Punk

Cody Rhodes had a conversation with Raj Giri of Wrestling Inc. and gave some details about how Matt Jackson had talked to CM Punk about appearing at All In in Chicago on September 1st. He also delved into the mysticism of Punk, the landmark event’s connection with WGN America & the Over Budget Battle Royal. Segments of the interview are below but you can read it in its entirety by going here:

Cody on his & Matt Jackson’s interaction with Punk:

“Yes, I mean I talked to [Punk] just vaguely,” Rhodes said. “He even at one point said ‘nobody’s asked me — hey here’s how much we’ll pay you and here’s who you’ll wrestle.’

“Matt [Jackson] actually made a full offer or full pitch for his services and I think Punk is focused on the Mixed Martial Arts element of his career. One of the reasons we didn’t first come out and say, ‘here’s who we want you to wrestle,’ because I think we just wanted him to be a part of the event for a lot of fans, he’s captured their imagination even with the amount of time he’s been gone. He has a mythical presence to them. I thought it would be good for him to connect with them, but that’s me, you know?

“Nobody owns Punk but Punk, so if he wants to do Mixed Martial Arts, go for it. He was always very nice to me and helpful to me in OVW. I always looked at All In with the perspective that it’s about the present and future of the industry and not really about cheap pops, even though I’m sure they’ll be plenty of those on the show. Matt had reached out to [Punk] and made him a real offer. I think Punk is set on not being part of it.”

On WGN America airing All In: Zero Hour:

“You know they’ve got a channel that reaches seventy-seven million homes,” Rhodes said of WGN. “So penetration is there and you’re talking about the milestone of two big arena shows that wrestling is returning to TV and it’s not WWE and to be nationwide.

“That’s why we decided this isn’t going to be a preshow, this is just going to be a different part of the show. The Zero Hour portion of All In that’s how it came about.

“The aptly named Over Budget Battle Royal which will have over fifteen competitors, I don’t know why I listed fifteen. I’m really looking forward to that for the ROH Title shot later.”

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