Top AEW star reveals what CM Punk told him after he signed with Tony Khan's company

A top AEW star has revealed what CM Punk told him after he signed with Tony Khan's promotion.

Swerve Strickland is currently one of the top stars on the AEW roster. His body of work this past year has been impressive and has earned him accolades from fans and critics alike.

Swerve signed with AEW while CM Punk was still with the company. In fact, Swerve Strickland had his first interaction with Punk in the Jacksonville-based promotion. Speaking on the Bootleg with Kev podcast, Swerve disclosed that Punk asked him how his contract signing went after he signed with the company.

“I was his last TV match. You know, like, uh, yeah. That was the last TV match in the all star tag match, uh, multi man in, uh, Collision. I had great experiences with him. I didn't interact with him a lot. But I always had good positive interactions. On my first day there, like I was taking my photos, my renders, and he jumped in and photobombed it. And I never even spoke to him. I never had an introduction to him, but that was his first interaction to me. And I was like, Oh man, this is cool. That's dope. And he like, and I went out, did my contract signing. And he was like, how'd it go, man? I was like, ‘oh dude, It went excellent.’ Thank you. So like, he's always been like a positive, like influence in me.” [8:00 - 8:35]

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Drew McIntyre says he doesn't respect CM Punk as a person

Ever since CM Punk returned to WWE, Drew McIntyre has been vocal in his opinion of the Straight Edge Superstar. He even went as far as to make fun of Punk's injury.

During a recent interview with Evan Mack's World, McIntyre stated that he did not respect the former WWE Champion as a person.

"[Is there an affinity of respect that you have for this man?] No, not as a person. I understand he's a big name, though. I understand he draws eyeballs. And that's good for the rest of our roster. You know, he brings attention, and people tune in. Maybe lapsed fans or new fans are like, 'What's going on in WWE right now?' There's a lot of attention, you know, a lot of people showing up that CM Punk is back and, of course, The Rock's back, and it brings more eyeballs, and I get that," he said.

He continued:

"I'm fine with that. I don't have to like everybody I work with. I'm sure you don't like everybody you work with. But the unique thing about my job is I can beat them up if I want. And at Rumble, I roughed Punk up. Bad that I knew it was bad, but I didn't realize that I had succeeded and injured the guy. So, I wasn't laughing about it, but, you know, I'm not laughing." [7:28 - 8:08]

Drew McIntyre is gearing up for the biggest match of his career as he faces Seth Rollins for the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania XL.