CM Punk continues to make the media rounds to promote his big showdown against Powerhouse Hobbs at AEW Grand Slam: Rampage on Friday night at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, New York.

During a recent appearance on “‘Rasslin’ with Brandon Walker,” the AEW star spoke about his comeback at “The First Dance,” picking AEW over WWE and the blend of veterans and rookies in the locker room.

Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview.

On getting a “Stone Cold” Steve Austin level pop for his comeback at AEW Rampage: The First Dance: “It’s like the kids say, there’s levels to this, and you don’t know until you ascend to those levels, and one of the things I’ve always hated about the wrestling business is, there’s exceptions to the rule, some people are good about it, but there’s always been people who have gotten to a certain level, and they’re almost taught and the culture is fostered for them to believe that they need to make sure nobody else gets to that level. They don’t want anybody to ‘steal their spot’. You throwing my name in the hat with somebody like Steve Austin, who’s arguably biggest star the business has ever seen. A lot of this is subjective, though. You can make the argument, ‘Oh, no, well, Hulk Hogan is a bigger star than Steve Austin,’ but then you look at business periods, and eras, and box office receipts and all that other stuff. I think Hogan’s a piece of sh*t, so obviously, I’m gonna be like, ‘Steve Austin, yay.’ What it what it feels like. I don’t have the words to describe what it feels like. What I know I feel like is I want to help everybody on the AEW roster f*cking get there. That’s what I know.”

On his decision to come back in AEW or WWE: “I’ll go ahead and tell everybody I had the option, and I went, well, it’s the devil you know against maybe the devil you don’t know. I know what I’m getting if I go work for Vince [McMahon]. I know who he is. I know what he is. It’s not going to change. I didn’t have fun, necessarily, last time I was there. I have no reason to believe it was ever going to change, but I just looked at what I would be doing. I’ve done it all. Who would I wrestle on that side of the fence? On the AEW side of things, I’m a kid at Christmas. I’ve already mentioned a couple of those names. A kid like Dante Martin, I watch him and the stuff he can do, I feel like I’m watching a 1995 Nitro where it has a different feel to it. It feels gritty. It feels rough around the edges, and oh by the way, here’s these two luchadores that had a layover in Tijuana and they’re there. They’re exhausted, and they go out there and they got a six-minute match, but they put on such a show and they pack so much into six minutes and have it makes sense. The stuff I see this kid Dante Martin do, I’m an artist, and I’m looking and I go, oh, I’ve never painted with that brush before. I can’t wait to get a hold of that brush.”

On the mixture of legends and up-and-coming talent in AEW: “I say this all the time, I love this saying, ‘We’re not in the business of standing on our own d*cks.’ Nobody’s trying to clip anybody’s wings and it’s gonna give birth to that next huge star.”

Check out more from the interview at YouTube.com. H/T to Wrestling Inc for transcribing the above quotes.

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