Jim Cornette believes multi-time WWE champion was an 'anti-thesis' to the AEW locker room

Jim Cornette, the former manager of The Midnight Express, shared his honest thoughts on why the AEW locker room is not a big fan of two-time WWE Champion CM Punk.

By now, it is public knowledge that the self-proclaimed Best in the World has been suspended since the Brawl-out incident following his comments at the post-AEW All Out media scrum. He has not returned to the promotion ever since. But has instead returned to being a commentator at Cage Fury Fighting.

The Elite, who was also part of the brawl, were also suspended but returned late last year during the Full Gear Pay-Per-View. They have regularly been featured in the promotion ever since.

During the latest episode of Jim Cornette's Drive-Thru, the wrestling veteran shared his thoughts on what he thinks differentiates CM Punk from the rest of the locker room. Cornette believes that the Straight-Edge Superstar is the needle mover of the promotion and also has a wrestling style that is different from most of the roster.

"Punk was the one that moved the needle for them the most. And Punk was also the anti-thesis of the kind of wrestling they want to do, meaningless goofy flips and twists and turns with their tongue and their cheek the whole time winking at you that they’re not serious. And Punk was the exact opposite of that," Jim Cornette said. [04:34 - 04:56]

The former manager of The Midnight Express also mentioned that the locker room was happy before the arrival of Punk.

“The story from the trampoline gang side of things was that, oh everything was harmonious in the locker room and everybody was happy until he [CM Punk] came around’,” [02:53 - 03:03]

Jim Cornette reflected upon the initial roster of AEW

While speaking on the same podcast, Cornette spoke about how The Elite formed the AEW roster before the arrival of CM Punk and the rest.

He mentioned that Tony Khan signed all the friends of The then-EVPs (Cody Rhodes and The Elite) and also signed a plethora of guys from the Independent circuit.

“When they started the company, it was all of the EVP’s hand-picked friends and every freak of nature on the Indies that somebody had ever laughed at for 15 minutes and Chris Jericho... But he was the only real name and everybody was happy because it was like a tree house, a little group of friends that they had hand-picked. Couldn’t draw a goddamn dime!… But they were happy,” [03:04-03:49]