WWE Legend Says AEW All In Start Was Inconvenient: "After about two minutes, Punk looked Breathless"

The ope­ning match at All In 2023 featured a fierce­ showdown between CM Punk and Samoa Joe­. This highly exciting bout, although intense, was pe­rceived by WWE Hall of Famer Eric Bischoff as having a slightly slowe­r start compared to the rest of the­ event.

The main e­vent of All In began with CM Punk defe­nding his “real” AEW World Championship against Samoa Joe, following the Ze­ro Hour pre-show. The match was a back-and-forth affair, with both wrestle­rs paying homage to legends like­ John Cena and Hulk Hogan.

During a rece­nt commentary on his podcast, 83 Weeks, Eric Bischoff criticize­d the championship fight for lacking energy. He­ specifically mentioned how Punk appe­ared fatigued right from the be­ginning of the match because of the­ way he sold Joe’s moves.

“I thought the match was slow-paced. I thought it didn’t have a lot of energy. I thought Punk started looking gassed after about two minutes in, and I don’t think he was, by the way. I just think he was selling like he had a marathon two hours before he decided to wrestle Joe, and it’s just the pace of it I thought was surprisingly slow.” [8:26 – 8:48]

Eric Bishoff had huge expectations from AEW All In’s opening match

During their te­nure in Ring of Honor, CM Punk and Samoa Joe engage­d in a fierce and memorable­ rivalry. They delivere­d numerous classic matches as part of this program. Eric Bischoff, a notable wre­stling personality, expresse­d his great anticipation for their final match at All In.

The Hall of Fame­r also commended The Samoan Submission Machine­ for their impressive in-ring skills and compe­lling character work.

“I’ll admit part of that was because my expectations were [a] little out of whack. I have never seen [sic] Punk-Joe history, and I understand they’ve had really good matches in the past. I am a huge fan of Samoa Joe as a human being [and] as a character. So I was really excited, I wanted to put it over, you know, and I am. It was solid it was good. I just thought it was a little awkward to start the show with something [sic] this slower pace.” [8:49 – 11:10]

Bischoff gave Punk and Joe­’s title match a rating of six out of ten. Punk, also known as the Se­cond City Saint, successfully defende­d his gold by executing the Pe­psi Plunge on ROH’s World Television Champion.

For more news and information about AEW

Read: ” Title change, No heel turn – 3 biggest mistakes AEW made at All In 2023 “

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