Brian Pillman Jr. Praises The Elite While Talking Evolving AEW Landscape

If there's one thing one must have an opinion on in the dying embers of 2022, it's the post-AEW All Out incident involving CM Punk, Ace Steel, Kenny Omega, and The Young Bucks. The incident is as divisive a situation as it comes, with fans, wrestlers, and others in the business having strong opinions regardless of what side of the coin they fall on. So it makes sense that AEW star Brian Pillman Jr. would be no different.

Speaking with Wrestling Inc.'s Senior News Editor Nick Hausman, Pillman Jr. tried to split the difference, looking at things through Punk's eyes before explaining why he felt the attitude the former AEW World Champion brought to the table didn't exactly fly.

"Punk's got an old-school mentality," Pillman Jr. said. "I think at the WWE, and maybe, perhaps, during those years coming up there, that would've been a solution. That would've been acceptable. Sticking up for whatever you believe in. I mean, who knows what was going through his head? Whatever. But that's just not the culture at AEW. That's not how we work. That's not how the company was founded.

"And to be frank, I came to AEW because of Cody and the Young Bucks and Kenny. I mean, it's a hundred percent why I went there. I really liked those guys. I believed in those guys. It all started because of these guys. These guys literally created the company. Call them presidents, call them founders, call them whatever the hell you want. But they are the reason that AEW exists, right?"

If those comments from Pillman Jr. aren't enough to cement his loyalty towards the Elite, his wrestling style onscreen recently likely is. In his most recent appearances on AEW's YouTube shows "AEW Dark" and "AEW Dark: Elevation", Pillman Jr. has showed off a more dynamic, athletic moveset compared to his early years in AEW, with many pointing out it resembles Omega's own work. Pillman Jr. confirmed to Hausman that the comparison is, in fact, by design.

"I f***ing watched hundreds of hours of that motherf***er wrestling," Pillman Jr. said. "There's that explosive Elite style that is what created AEW, that the Young Bucks and Kenny created, that people simulate and emulate on the indies and stuff.

"And God forbid if I'm not going to emulate that style because those are my heroes, those are the guys I look up to, and that's just how I trained. Kenny has a lot of Canadian wrestling influence too, and I was trained Canadian style as well. So, sorry everybody, for everybody that wants to call me a Kenny Omega bootleg version."