And what I continue to hear is it’s night and day. I heard this from Adam Copeland last week when he was on the show, that it’s just a completely different place. And so you can’t necessarily speak on maybe what it was like in ’23 or ’22, but I’m wondering if you can describe what’s so great about it right now and what you’ve heard about how it’s evolved. And I know this is something you’ve taken a lot of pride in being part of the change at AEW, and it seems like it’s all coming to fruition. How would you describe it these days?”

Ospreay: “I can’t comment that much because I wasn’t there. I was there at the Punk and Jack Perry thing. I was going over the match in my head, and I was sat there thinking to myself, like, ‘Oh, flipping hell. I need to get this right and this right.’ And I was making sure that everything was going on in my head.

And I heard a commotion, and I thought they were cutting a promo. So I got out of dodge, and then it was like I saw Punk walk past me and I was like, ‘Oh no, I know exactly what’s happened.’

So it was funny because it was one of those things where, like, you obviously read sh*t all the time on the internet, and then just to see it happen in front of you, it was just kind of like, ‘Oh, that’s lame.’

Every time I’ve come here, it’s been super enjoyable.”

Yes, I’m the champion. Yes, I wrestle on television, but to me, I don’t wrestle often enough. I need more reps. I think I’m better the more often I wrestle.

There is an element to giving back, though, obviously. I have great respect for this business, and I’m just following in the footsteps of the people who came before me.

Hopefully, somebody watches and learns and observes from me, and they can pay it forward when they have the opportunity to do so.”

So I wrestled in the singlet and it was fine. I just felt like the singlet wasn’t me, and I don’t know why. That’s stupid, but—and you could say it’s because I’m trying to hide the fact I’m fat, but everybody knows I am, you know what I mean?

So I don’t know why, but I just find the T-shirt looks better. Some people might disagree strongly, but that’s fine.

I wrestled just with my singlet at PWG before, and they told me, like, ‘Can you wear the shirt? You look better with the shirt. The singlet just doesn’t—it’s just not you.’

Anyway, so after a couple months of wrestling without the shirt at Ring of Honor, I asked Gabe [Sapolsky]. I’m like, ‘Can I just wrestle with the shirt on? It’s like, I just feel more comfortable. Like, I feel like I can be myself. When I don’t have the shirt, I just feel like I’m this wrestler dude.’

And Gabe was like, ‘Yeah, fine, whatever.’ But it wasn’t ‘yeah, fine, whatever,’ because he went and told Punk what I said.

And then that afternoon, before the show, when I was going to wrestle, and I had already decided, like, on the way up there, that I was going to wrestle without the shirt because I figured I’d already started without the shirt at Ring of Honor, so why would I just start wearing it out of nowhere now? So I’d already made the decision to just wrestle my singlet and gut it out.

But that afternoon, Punk just made a crack about me wrestling in the shirt, but whatever. I didn’t care. You know, I think Punk and I were on good terms. It was fine. I took it as a joke. You know, I don’t think he was trying to humiliate me. I really don’t think so. Other people probably saw it differently.

I did the match in the singlet, and I came to the back and I was blown to shits. I was blown up. But Punk was just—and it was a very small locker room, and people were, you know, minding their own business and talking their stuff out. But Punk was just, standing there looking at me, and I was blown, and I figured, ‘Oh, I’ll joke with him. I’ll joke back.’ And I said, ‘Are you happy now?’

But I guess he took it like I was trying to show him up, which I wasn’t trying to. I was literally trying to have a relationship with this guy and just joke around with him. But I guess I was blown, so maybe my tone was off. I don’t know. He got very upset. He yelled at me and he said I was disrespectful and all this stuff.

And for what it’s worth, If I had been in his position, maybe I would have thought the same. And now I know Punk a lot better, and I think he knows me a lot better too. And that’s now it’s just like a far thing. It’s like it never happened, really. But people still talk about it because there was a lot of people in the locker room and everybody saw it.

But I ended up just saying, ‘Okay, I’m sorry. You’re right. I’m sorry.’ That was it. It was no big deal. But, you know, the next day online, it was being reported we almost came to blows, which is not true.”

CM Punk is working his ass off from day one when he reached out to me. He has done every single thing that I’ve asked him to do. He’s on vacation in Hawaii, checking in with me every single day, sending me pictures, sending me his meals, sending me his macros, his weight, his temperature after meals, sending me videos from the gym, taking naps, getting enough sleep, getting morning sunshine, taking the supplements I tell him to take, never missing a workout, doing more than I ask him to do. I have to hold him back.

He’s getting his cardio in, weighing his food, buying rice cookers, buying scales, bringing all that with him on the road, eliminating all the shit from his diet, training harder than ever, smarter than ever, better than ever, dialed in at a level that most people could never comprehend.

In 30 years in this business, CM Punk is working as hard as anyone I’ve ever worked with. He’s as dedicated as anyone. And you’re going to sit here and post after post, ‘CM Punk is on steroids,’ blah, blah.

Meanwhile, half these pictures are AI, and the other half are from being in the gym with great lighting, with a great pump.

Now, how is he making progress like that? Again, he’s doing every goddamn thing I told him to do. He’s working his ass off. He’s gotten significantly leaner. So when you get leaner, you look bigger, and he’s training in a different way.

Honestly, he’s making almost newbie gains. It’s surprising me, but I know what’s going on. I know all the things he’s doing. I’m with him. I spend time with him. I talk to him every single day.

So just because someone’s getting somewhere and accomplishing something that you can’t doesn’t mean they are taking shortcuts and cheating. You are just lazy.”

Like, this match was so slow. The crowd was dead until, like, the last five minutes or so. CM Punk, for reasons I cannot explain, just like Brock Lesnar, like 30 seconds in, this guy’s purple. And then he decides, ‘I’m going to do some crazy sh*t.’ He did, I’m pretty sure, the worst moonsault I have ever seen in a main event match on the main roster from any company. I mean, it was so horrible.

And don’t yell at me. This is just on the internet. They have determined CM stands for ‘Cannot Moonsault.’

They had another spot where Cody went for a Cody Cutter. I think CM Punk was supposed to dropkick him out of midair, but he sort of did a falling Yakuza kick, which the announcers covered for by claiming that his leg hurt.

He also tried a flying elbow off the post through Cody and the table, which I couldn’t even believe he conceived of trying. Cody moved. He landed on his feet on the table and then went flying.

I don’t know how he survived the match. I mean, even like there was one spot at the end where Cody did a Cross Rhodes. It was the slowest Cross Rhodes I’ve ever seen in my life. And just like, I mean, this was a world title match in 2026.

Dude, I just can’t. I cannot sit here and say that this match was good. I cannot do that with a clear conscience.”