On the early, and signature, shots of AEW’s CM Punk/Maxwell Jacob Friedman feud was Punk calling his young rival a “less famous Miz”.
It’s not the first time the reality show star-turned-WrestleMania main eventer has come up when people talk about Max, and it probably won’t be the last. What does The Miz think about the comparison?
The A-Lister was talked about it on The Ringer’s Cheap Heat podcast. Punk’s jab wasn’t brought up, but Peter Rosenberg asked how he feels when people say MJF “could be The Miz”:
“I don’t think he wants to be The Miz, to be honest. I don’t think any superstar — no matter what company you are in — wants to be the next ‘this person.’ You want to be an original. Now, there’s comparisons. I’ve always been compared to, I remember I was compared to Jericho for a while, I was compared to Ric Flair for a while, and I was like, oh my god, I don’t know about that’... I don’t want to be compared. I want to be an originator.”
“Now, you take things. When you’re learning and coming up through the business, you see things that you like out of certain superstars, and you’re like, ‘Ooh, I’mma use maybe that, I’ll take a sprinkle of that, sprinkle a little of that’ as an homage to those people. In a sense, you want to be an original. And so I don’t think he wants to be the next Miz, I think he wants to be the first him — and honestly, he’s doing a great job at it... 25 years old.
“When I was 25 years old, I was still in developmental at Deep South Wrestling, and still learning the trade. I wasn’t putting on matches on national television, putting together memorable promos that people talk about. I wasn’t doing that. So, applaud to him.”
Very classy answer from someone who’s become something of an elder statesman in the business (something Miz says still feels unreal later on in this interview).
We’ll see if MJF acknowledges this compliment. It could be a good way to get under Punk’s skin...
UPDATE: Max has reacted, tweeting...
Miz is one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time.
I look forward to possibly meeting up with him down the road…..
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