Matt Hardy Praises AEW Star As “One Of The Greatest Pro Wrestlers Of All Time”

During a recent episode of The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy, the AEW superstar spoke about All Elite Wrestling and one of its biggest stars, CM Punk.

When Punk made his shocking return to wrestling in August of 2021, the wrestling world was ecstatic to hear CM Punk was back in the wrestling business. The former WWE superstar mentioned how happy he is to see Punk back in a wrestling ring, and why he believes "The Best in the World" is one of the greatest pro wrestlers of all time.

"I think it has been really really good for me, personally. I'm happy to see Punk back in wrestling," Hardy said. "I think CM Punk is just a fantastic pro wrestler and I feel like he belongs in pro wrestling. I give him all the credit in the world for venturing out and doing MMA, UFC. That was amazing, I wouldn't have done it even if I felt I could have. I wouldn't have been that brave or courageous. It took a lot of courage for him to do that, but I'm happy he's back in pro wrestling. When it comes to pro wrestling, that is just what he's built for and made for.

"He is one of the greatest pro wrestlers of all time and for him to come back to AEW, and be happy, and once again be fueled by such great passion, and to have this great program with MJF and write these love letters to the legends who paved the way for him and all of us, has been great. Punk just seems like he's very happy to be back which is nice, and I know towards the end of his WWE run, he was just burnt out and miserable. It is easy for that to happen in this industry, especially if you end up in this weird space, so it's great to see him back, and relaxed, and passionate, and in love with pro wrestling again."

Continuing to talk about AEW, Matt Hardy mentioned how he's been helping talent within the company with any help they need. He also detailed a specific conversation he had with a group of talent asking him about a promo and finish to their match.

"There were two guys that actually just contacted me from the Dark tapings which weren't on, two of the guys I worked with recently that said, 'hey, I have this question — I have to do this promo. Hey, I have this match, what do you think I should do as the finish?' I was very happy to give them a buzz back, and give them my insight and give them what I thought would be best for them. They were like, 'oh, thank you so much. It's so cool that you buzzed me back because I have to do it in 30 minutes, so thank you for that.' I'm big on doing that and really big on giving back. I love working with people, new people around the US in this final run that we're doing, all these indie shows. Guys will ask me can I watch this match, can I do this, and a lot of time, I don't have the time to. But if I have the time to look at clips, I will give them my honest feedback and I'll try and be as upfront with them as I can to better their game."

Since both he and Jeff have arrived in AEW, The Hardy Boyz have made it clear that All Elite Wrestling will be their last stop in professional wrestling, with goals to win the tag titles and retire there. Matt Hardy elaborated on that point, mentioning how they're working independent wrestling shows and that fans need to come to see them before their time is up.

"Jeff loves it here in AEW and we think this is going to be where we end our in-ring careers, here in AEW," Hardy said. "We do want to go around the indie scene and work as many things as we can. We want to cement our legacy as one of the greatest tag teams ever. That's very important to us and when we say final run, we're assuming as a tag team that we are going to wrestle out the rest of our careers here at AEW and also do some indies and stuff. I don't know how long this is going to last.

"Hopefully, it lasts for a while, but it's also motivation that if we're going to be in your town at some local promotion, a territory, it's a good opportunity to come out and see us because I don't know how many more of these we're going to do. We're going to do as many as we can until we can't do anymore."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.