His thoughts on the criticisms that say he's stuck in theĀ 80s: "I thank my old friend Vince Russo for that one. He started thatĀ and people picked up on it so now whenever anyone disagrees with anything I'veĀ done or even that I haven't done. It's not about being stuck in the 80's. I'mĀ one of the guys that has pushed, looked for and utilized more young talent forĀ the past ten years. I've been saying lets get the young guys out there, letsĀ push new talent, lets make some new stars, lets expose some new faces."
What led to him leaving ROH: "The thing is, I support RingĀ of Honor, i love the Ring of Honor talent, I love the Ring of Honor philosophyĀ and I wanted to desperately see professional wrestling taken seriously againĀ after it's been parodied for so many years now. I was talking to a friend theĀ other day and realised there's a new generation of fans that have never seen proĀ wrestling presented in a serious fashion and that's part of the problem. I hadĀ my visions for ROH, I'm not even talking about creative or booking orĀ matchmaking, I'm just talking about the way it could be structured and theĀ things that we could do but I didn't think that everybody in the company wasĀ pulling the same rope so to speak, I didn't think we did ourselves any favoursĀ with decisions that were made, and gradually I lost the passion that I demandedĀ of everyone else and you know if I obsess about it for 24 hours a day then IĀ sort of demand that everyone around me do that too for the good of the project.Ā So if I'm waking up going "f--k, I've got to do this today" whether it'sĀ something somebody's done or an obstacle and it began to be a rib on me. I'mĀ gonna be at the Charlotte Fanfest in August doing a no holds barred Q&A andĀ I plan to give an amusing account of my last day at ROH TV tapings.
CM Punk's Pipebomb inĀ 2011: "He went out there and he said a lot of things that a lot of fansĀ knew to be true. Jerry Jarrett, who was a master booker, always said 'tell theĀ fans the truth as much as you can, for as long as you can because then when youĀ work them, they'll think well A was the truth, B was the truth and C was theĀ truth, then maybe D is the truth too.' Don't give them a bunch of bulls--t fromĀ day one. Tell them the truth from day one and then when you wanna work them,Ā then you can slide that little white one in there. That little white lie. AndĀ they'll believe it because you haven't bulls--tted them so far.
"So CM Punk, and I saw it, I've been clean and sober from WWE programming for quite some time now, but I did watch that. It was a tremendousĀ performance and it was a tremendous delivery. He said things that a lot ofĀ people wanted to say and he made himself in that one night, the new SteveĀ Austin. He did it at a perfect time because his contract was coming up andĀ he didn't really give a s--t because he's careful with his money but at the sameĀ time he knew he could get over doing that and somehow he manipulated them intoĀ letting him do it and probably took a few liberties out there with a liveĀ microphone. Then they had to resign him. Two weeks later when he came out toĀ Cult of Personality by Living Color, because one thing Vince despises is havingĀ to pay music rights, I knew that he had basically got everything he had wantedĀ in his contract. Then he was poised to become the next Stone Cold Steve Austin,Ā the hottest babyface in all of pro wrestling, but of course once they resignedĀ him they still had to make the point that they're gonna control everybody andĀ knocked him back down."