Jim Ross will miss CM Punk at AEW, comments on Punk’s future prospects

Prior to the incidents which ultimately led to Tony Khan firing CM Punk, AEW’s legendary announcer Jim Ross was on record as liking the environment Punk helped create backstage at Saturday night Collision.

So it’s not surprising that Ross had generally good things to say about Punk when the topic came up on the first episode of Grilling JR to come out since Punk’s AEW exit:

“I’m gonna miss him [Punk] because I enjoyed being around him and we have such a small crew that comes on Saturday night. It’s a pretty neat environment to be honest with you on Collision nights. A whole lot less people are there.”

As for what’s next for Punk, Ross is making the same assumption many others are — and he has the same caveat about that assumption.

“I hope so, and I think it [Punk wrestling elsewhere in the future] will probably happen. I just don’t have any leads or any dirt on that. He’s still young enough and hungry enough, I think, to go out and grab those big paydays. I just don’t know where or when.

“So, you know, I mean, obviously, one would assume, and that’s all I’m doing, you would assume that CM Punk’s next destination could be WWE but there’s no guarantee of that either. I don’t know how they left it, and then when you go through a big turnover like WWE did this week with the Endeavor thing being finalized, you never know...

“He’s too good not to use his skills, but I don’t know. He’s a different cat as everybody knows. That’s not a revelation either.”

Punk has yet to make any public statements since his AEW firing was announced Sept. 2. While making the media rounds after “the Endeavor thing” finalized, WWE President Nick Khan gave a diplomatic non-answer on a possible Punk return.

We’ll see what happens. In the meantime, you can give the new Grilling JR a listen here.