WWE World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk discussed various topics with Complex News, including the company’s rising talents.
Punk said, “I think the talent coming up now I we’re as a company we’re at a really good place because I think there’s a lot of people in positions you know in the past I think when you look at a roster for a Royal Rumble you can maybe pick there’s less than five guys okay this guy could win this guy can win and nowadays it’s legit at least a dozen you can look at the whole roster and think like, ‘Okay, this guy could win a Royal Rumble, this guy, all right. This is this person’s year,’ and the pipeline is just jam-packed full of people like, you mentioned Oba [Femi], Trick [Williams] just showed up on Smackdown. Carmelo Hayes has been holding it down, and even then, there’s still so many people that I think are just like, you know, like next up. Lexis King, I think, is in line to do great things. He’s a lot different than a lot of those people. I think he has to almost work harder to where, you know, like an Obi is like, you know, obviously like a first round blue chip prospect.”
On how Lexis King reminds him of himself:
“I think a guy like Lexis King is more like is viewed more like me back in the day, where like they look at him and like they’re like, ‘Okay, you know, I don’t know if I — I don’t know if I get it.’ So, he has to he has to work that much harder. And he’s really open to ideas. His mind is not closed. Like he’s one of the he’s one of the guys that I think will shock a lot of people when it’s all said and done. You know, when it’s time to hang up the boots, they can look back at his career and think like, ‘This is a guy who maybe I didn’t think much of when I first saw he put the work in. He busts his ass, and he became really, really good.
On who he hopes to work with going forward:
“There’s a lot of people in NXT that are like that on both the men and the women’s side, as far as me having chemistry with them. It’s an embarrassment of riches. I’m gonna run out of road before I wind up having uh chances to work with all these guys. I want to work with Carmelo. I want to work with Trick. I want to work with Oba, you know, but in saying that, too, I’m also working with somebody who has a very, very bright future. You know, Bron Breakker was one of those guys in NXT that was holding it down and got called up, and sky’s the limit for him. Unfortunately, he has to run into the brick wall that is the best in the world.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
