Ahead of returning to the ring after seven long years at AEW All Out on Sunday, wrestler CM Punk sang praises of pro wrestling star Sting and said working with him is something he “never, ever thought was a possibility.”

Phillip Jack Brooks, better known by the ring alias CM Punk, challenged Darby Allin for a one-on-one match at the All Elite Wrestling pay-per-view event on 5 September. Allin has been mentored and partnered by the legendary Sting and since his return, Punk has been working up and close with the duo. 

“That’s a situation that I never, ever thought was a possibility,” Punk said, during an interview with Renee Paquette. “You’re talking about a guy who’s been on top everywhere he’s ever gone. And I kind of really don’t know if he gets the credit for his wrestling mind. It’s kind of hard for him not to have a different perspective based on everybody he’s worked with and everywhere he’s been. I don’t know if he was ever positioned as the top guy, but I feel like he was the heart and soul of WCW, especially towards the end.”

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The 42-year-old further went on to say, “He’s been in main events with Ric Flair, he’s worked everybody. He’s been around for so long and I just don’t think he gets the credit for that. I don’t think he gets the credit for being a top guy because maybe he always played second fiddle to Flair or Hogan or whatever. But they always had to rely on him. Sting was always there.”

Punk said sharing the ring with Allin and Sting meant three generations of pro wrestling pedigree were on the stage together. “Me and Sting have an individual voice. I can’t tell Sting what he’s going to say, Sting can’t tell me what he’s going to say, I don’t know what Darby’s going to say. You’ve got three different generations who talk three different ways.” 

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Talking about the instance he was in the ring along with Sting, Punk said, “I was pinching myself being in the ring with Sting. Afterwards he was like ‘hey I meant everything I said.’ And I was like super cool. I had to act like tough guy out there but inside I was like ‘YEEEEEE!'”

Asked about his experience with AEW President Tony Khan, Punk revealed that Khan trusts him, and other performers, to figure it out themselves, go out there and do what they do best. Punk pointed to a segment between him, Allin, Sting, Daniel Garcia and 2Point0 on Dynamite recently as an example.

“I mean close to nothing,” Punk said. “I think I was the one who was like ‘hey, just so you know, here’s what I’m going to say.’ And Tony was like ‘I trust you.’ And I was like ‘okay, well I’m not going to swear. You don’t have to worry about anything like that.’ I think that’s the youthful exuberance of AEW.”

The AEW All Out main show kicks off at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET, with a pre-show starting an hour before that. For grappling fans in the UK, All Out’s main show begins early Monday at 1 a.m. GMT