AEW All Out Media Scrum Notes *MAJOR SPOILERS*

[Chris]

Source: f4wonline.com

CM Punk compares new AEW signings to 1990s WCW additions
CM Punk believes that this moment in wrestling history is bigger than the WCW vs. WWF Monday Night War of the 1990s.

"I'm not Hogan, I'm not Savage, Daniel Bryan and Adam Cole, they're not The Outsiders. I see the parallels. This is totally different. And I'll go ahead and say it, people can quote me, they'll be pissed off about it, to me, this is bigger," said Punk.

Punk made the statement during the post-All Out media scrum at Now Arena.

He was quick to point out, though, that his focus is not on any outside force as competition to AEW, and that his and the company's primary objectives are engaging and pleasing their own fans.

"I'm not personally in the business of a war or competing. I know who competition is and competition isn't," said Punk.

"To me, we focus on ourselves, focus on the talent we have, and we focus on the people in the building. And I think that's how we grow," Punk said. "It's not about throwing stones."

Punk did allude to WWE, though never mentioned the company by name.

"I know TNT loves ratings, I know that everybody's going to look at stuff and compare the two. For a company that's only been around for two years, I think they're doing great. And if you're competing with somebody on another night that's got a 30-year head start, well that's fine," said Punk.

"To me, our competition is our audience. And as long as we keep them engaged and keep them happy, then that's what we're doing."

Adam Cole says decision to join AEW 'fairly easy'
"Making the decision was a fairly easy one."

That's how Adam Cole described his choice to join AEW as he spoke to the media at the post-All Out scrum. Cole debuted in the closing segment of the All Out pay-per-view.

Cole said that working in WWE had been his dream since he was a child, but that the passion of the AEW crew and fans helped make his choice to leave and join AEW.

"When you think about where I was, that was my dream since I was nine years old," said Cole. "...But I knew in my heart pretty early on that I wanted to come here [to AEW]."

"It was no knock whatsoever on them [WWE]. I had a very excellent four-year experience. But I wanted to come back and work with a crew who I love being around 24/7, a crew that is just as passionate about pro wrestling as I am, and fans that feel the exact same way that we do."

According to Cole, he was not anticipating to be a free agent until December.

But circumstances were different than both Cole and his former wrestling home anticipated, as Cole's contract actually came due in June. Cole revealed the details of his WWE deal and how his new agreement with AEW came together very quickly.

"I was under the impression that it was six months later," said Cole. It was a surprise to me, it was a surprise to them [WWE]. All of a sudden I went from thinking December was when I was going to start talking about a new contract, to all of a sudden we were talking about in three days."

Cole confirmed reports that he signed a short-term extension of his WWE deal to finish up his NXT angle with Kyle O'Reilly, who he called "one of my best friends in the entire world."

Cole also confirmed that he met with Vince McMahon prior to leaving WWE. He described McMahon as "intimidating," but said that their meeting was positive.

"The talk went great," said Cole. "We had a really, really good conversation about a lot of different things. The actual conversation itself was awesome. I had no bad experience with him whatsoever."

"He is an intimidating man. He definitely commands respect in a lot of ways, but the experience itself was totally fine."

Cole also addressed the future of his Twitch channel. In response to a question about knowing he won't have to give up his channel as he presumably would have had he stayed with WWE, Cole confirmed that it was important to him.

"It's incredibly important to me," said Cole. "Twitch was sort of something I started over the pandemic and wanted to do for a long time, but hadn't really taken the time to teach myself."

"Initially, I really did do it just because I really like video games..." "But then what started from the Twitch stream was this community of people that would all come together and literally share that passion over video games," Cole said.

"I have gotten so many messages from people who are going through a really, really rough time, and the only thing they looked forward to at that time were those streams. I feel a connection with a lot of these people. I know a lot of them by name. Social media can be a really nasty place sometimes, and there is not of that in the Twitch streams."

"So I adore doing that, I'm so happy that I'm still doing it. I don't plan on stopping anytime soon."


Bryan Danielson says desire to 'push limits' led him to AEW
Bryan Danielson said that no one thing led to his choice to join AEW, but ultimately a desire to physically push his limits was a driving force.

"I hate to say this, but... Vince [McMahon] and I have a great relationship. And I love him, I do. Sometimes he's overprotective of me. And I want to be able to push my limits," Danielson said at the post-All Out media scrum. Danielson debuted for AEW in the show-closing segment of All Out.

"That's one of the things that I love about this, is the physicality of what we do and being able to push my limits."

Danielson stated that a desire to have a portion of his life be "wild" also contributed to his decision.

"I don't know how many of you are married or have kids. When you're married and you have kids, your life becomes a little bit tame. I love it, but it's a little bit tame," Danielson said.

"I need one part of my life that's a little bit wild."

Danielson also revealed that WWE was going to allow him to do things outside of the company, but did not specifically state if that would have entailed wrestling elsewhere. Perhaps to that end, Danielson expressed a desire to do some work in NJPW and also in Mexico.

"WWE was so gracious to me as far as the offer that they gave me. They were going to let me go do some other stuff outside," said Danielson. "I really battled back and forth, because there's a lot of people there that I consider family, that actually are my family, and people that I love there. So, it was a really tough decision."

Danielson said that there was no one tipping point that led to his decision to leave WWE, but pointed to AEW's Brodie Lee tribute show as one of the first things that got him thinking of making a move to AEW.

In response to a question about the possibility of his wife Brie Bella joining AEW, Danielson downplayed the possibility.

"That would be very difficult. It was hard for me to go, because I have so many ties within WWE. She's happy there, she has so many business connections there, so I don't know," said Danielson.

Bryan also addressed the possibility of not leading his signature "Yes!" chants, as he wants to make certain that doing so would not in any way be a snub to WWE.

I respect the people that I have worked for before and their intellectual property," Danielson said. "The fans doing it is great, but I'm not sure if I'm going to do it. "