News

NJPW Star Demands “Correct Amount Of Money” For CM Punk Bout

By Sondra Ruth • Published 7th June 2023
CM Punk

CM Punk is on his way back to AEW, but one NJPW star says he doesn’t want a match with the star if the money isn’t right.

Tension between Punk and NJPW’s KENTA has been building for years based on the fact that Punk took KENTA’s finishing move and popularized it in WWE, meaning KENTA wasn’t able to use the move he invented when he made his own way to WWE as Hideo Itami.

AEW President Tony Khan recently announced that Punk is on his way back to All Elite Wrestling and will feature on the debut of the company’s new Collision program. With fences seemingly mended after the events of All Out, fans are eager to see if Punk will take part in the cross-promotional Forbidden Door event on June 25th. As one fan pointed out on Twitter, the story between the two masters of the Go 2 Sleep writes itself, and many would love to see them face off inside the squared circle.

[sided-debate-embed debate-id=”27465″]

The fan posted a video from a BA Star rally from Punk’s WWE days where he admitted to outright stealing the GTS. In the clip, Punk was asked how he came up with his finishing move, and had this to say:

“I stole it. Easiest answer. There’s a gentleman by the name of KENTA who wrestles in Japan for Pro Wrestling Noah. Everything’s been stolen and just used, you know. That’s why I actually kept the name; I didn’t try to change it to like, you know, the ‘Punk Out’ or the ‘Punkarama.’ I was blatantly ripping this poor b*stard off, so I kept the name, kind of as an homage to him.”

While KENTA has appeared to challenge Punk in recent days, he made it clear with a quote tweet of this video that the money has to be right in order for him to agree to face Punk at Forbidden Door.

“I don’t really care who’s the original G2S. There is only one truth. If you want me to have match against Punk, Give Me correct amount of money. Other than that I don’t need to have this match. Seriously.”

Whether or not the battle over the Go 2 Sleep takes place, Forbidden Door is set to have at least one dream match on the books when Bryan Danielson faces Kazuchika Okada.

If you use any quotes from this transcription, please credit the original source and link back to this article with a h/t to TJRWrrestling.net.