Booker T Blasts CM Punk’s AEW Debut Promo, Social Media Fires Back

CM Punk returned to professional wrestling on Friday as he made an appearance on the All Elite Wrestling (AEW) show AEW: Rampage. Fans were excited to see the former WWE Superstar back, but one WWE Hall of Famer had a big problem with his promo. Booker T talked about Punk’s AEW promo on The Hall of Fame podcast and said that the Chicago native “struck out.”

“This is my thing here — CM Punk, Chicago, Illinois, hometown, not ‘my backyard’ but ‘I built this damn city’ [and] ‘I put Chicago on my back’ and that’s why 20,000 strong is in the building tonight, they know CM Punk is going to be in the house, right? Give that credit to CM Punk,” Booker T said, per Wrestle Zone. “I always talk about when you have a moment, you may only have that moment for that one time and poof—it’s gone. You may never have time to get it back.

“Now, CM Punk has a chance to get it back and we’ll talk about that later, he’ll be around for a while, he’s not going anywhere, but here’s my point right here—CM Punk came back and he had ten full television minutes to go out there and make his point as far as ‘CM Punk being back.’ He had the perfect crowd to be able to go out there and really, I’m talking about having a party up in that United Center, OK? But CM Punk came back and took his moment and chose to talk about WWE. That right there was just a total miss as far as I’m concerned, [in relating it to baseball terms, he] struck out.” Fans quickly went to social media to fire back at Booker T.

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One fan wrote: “At this point from Booker T he’s just envious because he’s not out there getting the pops or recognition he thinks he deserves. He is the bitter one in all this lol.”

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Another fan wrote: “In a 10 min promo he threw shade at them for like 20 secs   the rest was his story, announcing come back, promoting darby ppv, & ice cream. “

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One social media user said: “I find it very interesting that Book, and Reigns have both had negative things to say regarding Punk’s return. I expect more WWE people to spin negative PR about him. It’s like they purposely send their people out to crap on it.”

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Another person revealed: “Been a long time since i watched wrestling so i have no clue what’s going on . But i remember 10 years ago , watching CM Punk as he would cut his legendary promos n’ be like wow ! Dude really is something. As a non wrestling fan i’m so happy he’s back. I watched his debut on AEW.”

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Another Twitter user wrote: “He never said WWE, but the message was sent. Maybe WWE should do better booking and stop crapping on their young stars like Bianca Belair instead of worrying about CM Punk.”

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One person said: “Booker T was my favorite wrestler growing up, but every time he opens his mouth these days I just lose more and more respect for him. If you look closely you can actually see Vinces hand moving his puppets mouth when he has these terrible takes.”

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And this person wrote: “Punk had to address why he was away because for years, a bunch of trolls online were on this kick about Punk ‘abandoning’ the fans and WWE. He explained his reasons why he was gone. For Booker to take offense to that is really dumb and sad. It screams ‘company shill.’”